Swim Lessons
Back in April we enrolled Melody in swim lessons at our local YMCA. Emily also enrolled Lydia. My parents have a pool, so we wanted to be sure and get them familiar with the water before the summer. The specific class is called 'water exploration'. Basically it isn't to teach them to swim on their own, but it teaches them some of the basic swimming concepts.
There were eight 30 minute classes that we attended over the span of 4 weeks. The maximum number of students in this class is 6. The ages for this class is 6 months - 3 years. The class is a parent/baby class which means we had to get in the water with them during the all of the classes. Our class contained 6 students varying from 14 months - 3 years. Melody and Lydia were right in the middle of the age groups.
I must say, I wished we would have introduced them to this class last summer. I feel like they both liked the class the least. The younger children didn't know any better to fear the water. They did whatever their parents asked them to do. The older children either loved the water already or they could be convinced to participate by rewarding them with something afterwards. Melody and Lydia are at the age that bribery is hard. And they are also at the age that they want to do what they want to do, and it's a battle otherwise.
Anyhow, I do feel like the girls would have enjoyed it more last summer, but they still did learn a lot. The skills that the instructor focused on are below:
- Blow Bubbles - mouth & nosed submerged, assisted
- Front Tow - blow bubbles, assisted
- Water Exit - assisted
- Water Entry - assisted
- Back Float - assisted, head on chest
- Roll - assisted, back to front & front to back
- Front Float - blow bubbles, assisted
- Back Tow - assisted, head on chest
- Monkey Crawl - assisted, on edge, 5 feet
Melody did pretty good at most of those things except blowing bubbles. She refused to blow bubbles. That is the one thing the teacher said we didn't "achieve". She did everything else at least once. She was really great at water exits and front tow. She would do the water entry as long as Emily asked her. The great thing is that I can take all of the skills we were taught and continue to work with her this summer in the pool. The teacher did have fun ways to try and get the kids to interact with these skills, but Melody usually wasn't a fan. Her favorite parts were the songs we did, but that was about it.
After each class, we would let the girls play in the splash pad/water park area they had prior to leaving. Then we would change and go about our day. Melody and Lydia enjoyed the locker room most I am most positive!
