HG took swim lessons as a child and remembers them positively, so this year we signed them up for swim lessons. I never had swim lessons (and I'm not a really strong swimmer, in fact there has been more than one occasion that I thought I was about to drown) so I really didn't know what to expect. But, as it approached we really pumped the kids up about swim lessons and how good they would be and what they would learn. It worked! The kids were sooooo excited and eager to learn - they couldn't wait for swim lessons.
Well, when we pulled up to the house where the swim lessons were taking place I could hear children crying and screaming. As we made our way to the back of the house we passed a sobbing mother telling her sympathetic friend how she just doesn't know if she can do this, it's so hard, etc.. Then we got around to the back of the house by the pool where we meet our fellow swimmers and there's a little boy Ethan's age crying. His mother tells me he's crying because he remembers swim lessons from last year. "Was it that bad," I asked her (hoping she'll say no) but instead she looks at me, sighs, and almost starts tearing up as she shakes her head yes! At this point I am sweating bullets and wondering what in the world I have gotten myself and my children into. Do I need to pack up and go home? But even with all this crying going on around them my two kids are smiling from ear to ear and waiting eagerly to start swim lessons (what can I say I guess we do a really good job at pumping them up for stuff). Then the swim teacher gathers all the moms together and gives us a long speech about how children are stubborn, he needs our full support, he wants to save their lives in the water but that won't be an easy thing to teach them so expect tears and screaming, but he will teach them to swim and survive in the water! Needless to say by this point I'm ready to just forget it, but then I look at my children that are still busting out with anticipation. So...I decide to stick it out. I'm right there watching and listening, so I will give him my full support - unless he's awful and then I will get my children and go home.
Well...after just minutes in the water he had Ethan floating on his back and by the end of class Naomi was too! I was impressed - I worked on that with the kids all last summer and he did it in minutes! I was also happy to see that the man wasn't awful, he was firm but fine. I left thinking that maybe the crying kids weren't old enough to be taking swim lessons yet, or they just had real phobias of the water, or one crying child just upset another one, or maybe seeing the moms crying upset the kids. But at the end of the first lesson my children were happy as larks. In fact, their bedtime prayers were filled with thanksgiving for swim lessons! The second day came and again they did great, but the lesson only lasted about 15 minutes before lightning canceled the class.
I left day 1 and 2 of swim lessons sooo proud of my kids! That's when it happened, you know the verse in Proverbs "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." When will I learn????
Now that the swimmers had learned to float on their back the swim teacher's goal was to teach them to float like that for an extended period (I don't know exactly how long but it seemed like a long time. In fact, I'm not sure I could float as long as he was making them). He also wanted them to learn to roll over and float on their backs after jumping or being thrown in the pool. That didn't go over real well! The kids learned to roll over and float on their backs, but they didn't believe they could do it. At first the teacher put empty swim vests on them to make them think they were wearing something and they did great. Then he took those off and tried to convince the children that they had done it on their own. But making them do this without a vest, even an empty vest, was our destruction and our fall as Proverbs says. Now my kids became part of the crying and screaming kids group and I left the smiling proud mama side and joined the mamas holding back tears group! The teacher threw them in the pool over and over and over and every single time they rolled over, floated on their backs, and then cried and screamed. Their fear that they wouldn't be able to do it completely overtook the fact that they were doing it! They also learned this week to blow bubbles, swim under water, and to be sleeping fish (a technique he used to teach them to float up to the top of the water). But...most of the time was spent on rolling over and floating on their backs which means most of the time they were in tears!
Believe me when I say, it was difficult for all of us! But...the kids definitely learned a lot during the week of swim lessons and although it was hard, I think it was good. We had a very powerful teachable moment about the importance of persevering even when things are hard! Plus, they are definitely on their way to being strong swimmers. Just look...
Here's Ethan swimming like a fish under the water. In fact, since going to swim lessons I have seen him several times even attempt breast strokes and flips underwater!
And...here's a picture of him floating on his back without the screaming and crying that accompanied it during swim lessons! Thank goodness!
Naomi is swimming all around the pool with her head under water and everything, but she's not ready to let go of that swim vest yet. I'll let her have it for now because I bet by the end of summer she'll give it up on her own and be swimming all over without it!
