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April 4, 2007
Sink or Swim
So Lizzie had her first swim lesson last night at the Y and I'd have to say it ended on a high note, which was certainly a surprise to me.
We talked about it all day and I knew that this child would either clam up and refuse to do anything or timidly get into the water. I had even offered an incentive of leftover cake and ice cream if she obeyed what her teachers asked and tried new things. When we got there and one of the teachers introduced themselves, she turned to me and shoved her hands down in the pockets of her pullover so I couldn't take it off. She wouldn't talk to anyone. So I pulled her aside and reminded her of our deal and asked her to take off her flip flops and pullover. Basically this paints the picture of at least the first 15 minutes. It was slow going and she had this painful look on her face like I was feeding her to wild dogs. Her teacher is this young girl who worked pretty well with her. By the end Lizzie was actually chatting it up with her instead of ignoring her. There's only one other teacher in the class and one other student, so Lizzie has this teacher all to herself which is nice.
By the end of the half hour she was holding onto the noodle while kicking across the pool (with the help of her teacher of course) and she was upset when we had to leave.
The whole thing kind of wore me out. She's really excited about going on thursday and tells me every once in a while how much she likes swim lessons.
I think on thursday we're going to go early and I'm going to swim with her a bit to get her warmed up to the idea again. (did I mention how excited I am to get into a swim suit)
Side note: if I had a working brain cell in my head I would have taken her to open swim a few weeks ago and gotten her used to the surroundings. I highly recommend this if you are considering enrolling your kids in lessons, take them to that same pool first and swim with them. Oh well, I'll have to remember with Julia.
We'll see how thursday goes, I think if she and I are already playing around in the water it will help with the transition. (in theory)
| By JennR | 9:43 AM
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