Swimming Lessons

This summer, we decided to put all the kiddos into swimming lessons at the pool across the street. Olivia's had lessons before, but the rest of them had never had formal lessons. Our goals were to have the boys out of their floats and swimming on their own and the littles to be more comfortable in the water so they would be more independent in their floats. For Olivia, we wanted her to get some more technical practice with strokes.

In the end, we were really, really happy with the results. See for yourself!

(Love the sneeze :)

 Both Gabe and Ezra were very comfortable and happy to swim without their floats. Ezra, in particular, loves to do flips in the water.

We are so impressed with how Emma did. Understandably, Irene wasn't interested in going that far with it, but she wasn't scared to be in the water and was brave enough to jump off the side if someone would catch her.

Our biggest concern was whether they would continue to be so brave when they weren't in class and they have been. We've been going to a friend's house where they have a pool and the boys are till doing great and both Emma and Irene are really excited to get in the water.

If you live in Greensboro and are considering swim lessons, we highly recommend the lessons at the Lindley Park pool. 

Swim Lessons

A few months ago, Rebecca bought a Groupon for swim lessons through Star Aquatics and we finally got around to signing Gabe and Olivia up. Olivia has had lessons in the past but needed some encouragement overcoming her fear of deeper water. Gabe has never had a lesson, so this was a first for him.

Gabe was fearless. He did very well. he was ready and willing to plunge his face in and blow bubbles when the teacher asked him.

We trusted her enough that he floated on his back and kicked his feet with no struggling or panicking.

Olivia did marvelously well, too.

She never once panicked or cried when her teacher had her kick out into the deep end of the pool. She even swam across to the 10-foot end without help!

 We are proud of both of them for doing so well and overcoming their fears. The instructors at Star Aquatics were wonderful and patient with each of them.

Swim Lessons

Olivia had swim lessons again this summer, with the goal of getting her comfortable in the water without her floats and to work on her kicks and arms and to jump in and swim a short distance. She was very brave! The first day was hard for her but she overcame her fears and was eager to try all the skills during the rest of the lessons.

She is under water holding her breath.

Here she is kicking. They progressed from noodles or kickboards to no help at all. She was encouraged (and mostly managed) to straighten out her legs and thereby improve her kick strength and speed by the end of the lessons.

This is when she just started jumping in to her teacher. Then she progressed to jumping in and swimming a couple of those black line distances to her teacher.