Swim Lessons!

At our family swim party in June at Shlaine and Steve's house, we decided that swim lessons BEFORE vacation were a MUST! :-) Mack wanted independence but fussed if you werent holding him. Rhyan had no fear and jumped in the water with NO floaties on and no adult near by. Whew. Mini heart attack.

So we decided to go back to Swim Atlanta here in Dacula. I'd love to do survival swim classes sometime with both kids but we have 2 deterrents. 1. Cost (its over $300 a kid!) and 2. Time (the classes are 5 days a week for 10-15 min each... the drive alone is 30 min for us for that particular class! And we both work.) One summer we will hopefully do it, but seeing as how we dont have a pool in our own back yard, I dont worry much. If that dream ever becomes a reality, you bet we'll be investing in the classes for sure!

Rhyan was SO excited to go back to classes. We did her first round right after Mack was born and it was great! She gained a good bit of independence and had a great time! That was a mommy and me class and so this year was a bit different... not only were we not in the water with her, we werent even allowed to be in viewing distance! Behind the mirrored glass... Which is why I have almost no pics. Each time I'd try to sneak out and take some, Rhyan would see me, be distracted and her teacher would shoo me away! ha!

The kids classes were back to back. Mack would go first and then Rhyan. It worked out great because we would just let Rhyan take some toys or her little leap pad explorer and she would sit in the waiting room (directly next to the pool we were in with mack) and play while we did his lesson! Such a big girl!

Honestly, I was pretty worried about how Mack would do. He's a very vocal child and if he disapproves of anything, everyone knows it.  But his teacher assured me that it didnt bother her and not to worry. So we pressed in! The new environment must have made a big difference, though, because for the most part he was really well behaved. EXCEPT... he hit his teacher once. In the face. And told her "no! stop it!". And she promptly took his bootie out of the pool and told him we do not hit and he needed to say "i'm sorry". It took him a minute to be willing to apologize and she just waited. He gave in and she gave him hugs and said "lets go have fun! but NO hitting". I about died, i was so embarrassed. But I was also grateful that she didnt look to me to get in the middle of it. Dont get me wrong, i KNOW its OUR responsibility to discipline Mack... but she was in authority in this class and he KNEW it and i knew it would be nipped in the bud much quicker if she handled it. She was a pro!

We talked about the hitting incident at home, obviously, and the next morning (withOUT being prompted at all!) he walked right up to his teacher and said "MACK NO HIT!" and smiled and gave her a hug. LOL!

He loved "humpty dumpty" and falling in, but didnt want me to pull him in... he wanted to fall in on his own and then let me pull him up. Such a dare devil!

He also did GREAT going under water! We would have him "zoom" from his teacher to me and back all under water and for the most part, he would come up smiling! The other thing that cracked us up is that his teacher would tell us to lay his head on our shoulder (having him look up) and assist him in floating, all while encouraging him to "look! what do you see?!" (use your imagination as to what you see on a pool warehouse ceiling). But Mack joined right in.. "LOOK MOMMY! A TRAIN!" or "LOOK! ITS BRUCE!" or "NEMO!!!". What a nut... with a great imagination!

Here was Mack as he "graduated" with his little friend. They were so cute and gave hugs every day!

Honetsly, I cant even tell you what all they worked on with Rhyan cause, duh, I couldnt be there! But I do know that coming out of the class she could jump in the water and swim at least 5 feet under water unassisted. Could swim from person to person 5-8 feet apart unassisted. Was working on floating. And literally had NO fear of the water. Love that girl and her love for water!

And she cracked me up... the first day of class she was the only kid w/o goggles. So of course we ran out and bought a pair... She wore those jokers ALL THE TIME! Loved them! Quite the look, right?!

The swim lessons were a HUGE benefit to the kiddos and, as you'll hopefully read in the next week, a huge help for while we were at the beach!  Idk that we'll do lessons every year, but periodically for sure. They enjoy it so much and its really great to see all they are learning and the love it has given them both for the water. Even our trips to Lanier World for the rest of the summer were much improved!