Swimming Lessons

Last January, Annaliese started talking about swimming lessons and how she wanted to learn how to swim; this quickly morphed into her telling me that she already knew how to swim. This seemed like a scary thought (a 6-year-old who thinks they can swim but actually cannot) and so I signed her up for swimming lessons. And since we were already going to be at the pool, I signed Haleigh up for lessons too. It was recommended to do more than one session over the summer so that they would 'really learn things' and with the things we already had scheduled this summer, this turned out be two sessions in a row. Which meant 4 weeks of lessons every. single. day. Folks, that is 20 days of swimming. I think I was crazy. But, now that they are all down, I can enjoy my mornings and be glad that they did actually learn some things! 

We did lessons through the Bellingham Golf and Country Club; our first session met from 8:45-9:15 and was rather chilly! The second session was 8:15-8:45 (no sleeping in for us!) but the weather was warmer and actually quite nice.

Haleigh's class met in the corner of the pool on the steps and had between 6-7 other kids, 2 teachers, and a lifeguard. They worked on blowing bubbles, putting their eyes in the water, doing a starfish, and jumping off the wall into the pool. They started each class by kicking their legs (with their hands on the steps.) It took Haleigh three weeks to start kicking with 2 feet! The rest of the time she kept one foot on the ground and would kick with the opposite leg and then switch. It was super entertaining to watch! She definitely became more comfortable in the water over the course of time and will even put her head completely under now!

Annaliese's class had 3 other kids in it and they learned how to swim with their face underwater, float on their backs and started working on different arm strokes. They also jumped off the diving board regularly and started to learn how to dive off the edge of the pool. 

While they were busy swimming, Lydia was busy walking around the stroller, buckling and unbuckling it, trying on Haleigh's shoes and snuggling with me. She did an amazing job!