Swimming School Update

Amelia loves going to swimming school now. She loves to grab her report card and hands it to the instructor as she walks into the pool area. One of the skills they work on is called the monkey walk where the kids are expected to hold on to the edge of the pool and pull themselves along from one side to the other. At first the instructor had to put his hands on Amelia's hands to move her along, then he had to hold on to her hips as she walked along, and now she is doing it all by herself. In fact the first two items on her report card now read Mastered. She can enter and leave the pool safely and she can hold her breath while she gets dunked under the water three times. She has to master several other skills before she can advance to the next level.

Waiting for her turn to jump into the pool.

This probably week 2 or 3. She has since mastered the first two skills.

On our way home after another successful swim session. She ate a dum-dum reward on her way home.

Some other safety skills that it may take her a while to master include pulling herself out of the pool and jumping from the edge into the pool. Once she gets her knee to the edge of the pool she can pull herself up. It is the same motion she uses to climb into her car seat. She has only recently successfully done that consistently. We have a trampoline at home we are using to get her to practice jumping. And I also have her jump off the stairs or a chair to me to build up her confidence. She still doesn't understand that she has to bend at the knees a bit and push off her feet. She mostly just screws up her courage to fall forward at me while I catch her. Jumping is a hard concept! What she really needs to work on is paying attention and waiting while the instructor works with another child. Sometimes he is constantly having to tell her to sit because she is doing all kinds of crazy things while she is "waiting" her turn.