Seventy-fifth Passage

Last week the three boys had swimming lessons. Owen was in the pre-school class with kids mostly 3 years old, William was in level 1, and Morgan was in level 2. I wanted to put both the older boys in level 2, but there was only one slot left open. When I signed them up, William was still afraid to put his head in the water, so I put Morgan in level 2. But in the short time that elapsed between signing up and having lessons, William became much braver in the pool, and even learned to doggy paddle without assistance. But I left them in the classes I originally signed them up for, which I don't think was a bad thing.

While they boys had their hour lessons, Lydia and I hung out and watched. She did much better than I thought she would; she loves swimming and I thought she would throw a fit every day because she didn't get to get in. But she was generally well behaved.

Owen was generally horrible. He's way too afraid of water in general, but the water his class was in was 2 ft. deep. Even he is okay with that depth. But he still refused to participate, listen to his teachers, or be nice in any manner. The only interaction he instigated with his classmates was to splash them in the face. And his teachers. I was not well pleased.

One day they did life jackets and took them into deeper water. David was there that day, so we made him participate. He wasn't happy about it. But afterward, he was more comfortable with his teachers and was happier to be there.

 He clung so tight to the teacher holding him.

William did great in his class. His first day he was still a little apprehensive about blowing bubbles in the water, and freaked out a little. This made me realize my decision to leave him in level 1 was a good choice. But he got better, and even learned to swim short distances underwater without plugging his nose.

 The last day his class got to jump off the diving board. Owen's class did it with them, but Owen, of course, stayed on the sidelines.
Anyway, William was pretty apprehensive at first. His teacher, (whom William adored) was in the water to catch him, and another was on the diving board to assist. It's a good thing too, otherwise William would have chickened out an never known how much he would like jumping off the diving board.

Here are the first and second jumps from William. I didn't get anymore videos, but he got braver each jump.

Morgan also did well. His class did a lot of diving for rings. Morgan has a buoyancy problem. He isn't. He sinks like a rock, no matter how much he kicks and flails about. So the learning to float thing didn't work out so well. Neither did the learning to swim thing, for that matter. But there was definite improvement. I think with a little more instruction and practice, he can get it down.

His class also got to jump off the diving board, but they didn't have someone in the water to catch them, so Morgan used a floaty.