Swimming underwater and Nemo chats
Before our last swimming lesson it felt like such a long time since the session before Christmas. Needless to say we didn’t get to the pool over the Christmas holidays, but N didn’t seem too worried about the break.
N really enjoyed being back in the pool…once he was in it. Â Getting him to actually jump in to me was interesting, as everyone else had jumped in, he was still faffing and trying to negotiate me standing nearer! Â I do despair sometimes because he’s so inconsistent with what he will and won’t do. Â He did jump in the end (and several times in the lesson), but it was hard work encouraging him in. Â Of course, once he’s in he just grins away and starts chatting away.
The lesson was about body line and breathing. Â Even as babies, Water Babies teach the children how to blow bubbles in the water, gradually working up to breathing and even trying to get the timing of breathing right.
N doesn’t have a problem about blowing bubbles in the water, but unlike most of the others in the class who will happily swim away half submerged and then swim up to breath before going under again, N is definitely a surface only swimmer. He doesn’t seem to have equated the blowing bubbles and breathing, with having to actually keep kicking and doing his arms to actually bring himself up to breathe. Â Hence we usually have him looking like he’s sinking.
But this lesson he got on really well. Â The teacher had a trick to get the children to understand the right action for front crawl breathing. Ingenious using Nemo (lucky that N has actually seen that film), for them to chat to underwater, and then put their head on the side to listen to his answer. Â N took to it well and was ‘chatting’ away in the water before ‘listening’.
Then it was time to practise it while swimming, and adding counting into the mix. Â I know I can’t do crawl breathing to 3 strokes (in fact, my breathing while doing crawl is horrendous so I stick to breast stroke instead), so I’ve no idea how young children do it. N just wanted to blow bubbles as far as he could while swimming with his woggle. Â Me counting to 3 and saying breathe wasn’t working because N just ignored me. Â Still, it wasn’t bad for a first time activity.
I was also surprised at how keen he was to go underwater and try and sit on the bottom of the pool before pushing off the bottom again. Â 6 months ago he’d have moaned like anything, this time he was eager to try again and again. Â Even without me going underwater with him, N would try, although I’m not sure that he actually touched the bottom like he said he did!
All in all it was a really good lesson and N achieved a lot that previously he wouldn’t have been keen on, and did well at something new. Â With only a few sessions before N outgrows Water Babies, it’s great that he’s still trying new things, and progressing with activities he’d previously hated to do.
Have your children got back into their term time routines yet?
We swim with and blog for Water Babies. All words and opinions are my own.
Well done to N! We are planning on my son getting swimming lessons too but we are still looking for a nice schedule. I hope that my son will react to swimming the same way as N =)#sharewithme
It’s so hard to find swimming lessons that suit a routine when you’ve school, nursery or just meal times to work around. Hopefully you find some that he loves.
Ahh sounds like he is back into a great routine and adding new things is amazing. My kids are water babies all the way and they love their swimming lessons as do I with them. I am actually going to be sharing my experience with my two soon. I think it’s such a great thing to do with them and life saving if they ever fell in water on holiday or for me my parents have a river right in front of their house. it’s safety thing for me to have them be good swimmers. Lovely post. Way to go dude!!! Thanks for linking up to Share With Me #sharewithme
Definitely the safety part for me too. We’ve got a pond on the farm, but it’s just something that I think everyone should be able to do. N’s got some way to go yet in terms of actually being willing to try swimming without me…we’re on 3 lesson countdown now. Going to be sad to leave Water Babies as the lessons have been great. We’ve loved them
He’s done really well, far ahead of where Monkey is in normal swimming lessons. I fear years of stage one await us! Knowing just how hard it is to learn to breathe and do front crawl I applaud N for getting it.
I’d hoped he’d be a bit further on now, and able (more confident to at least try) to swim a width on his own like some of the others in his class. He’s been swimming since 3 months old, but he’s had so many ups and downs, I’m hoping his enjoyment will continue once he moves to his new older classes.
It’s strange how they learn all the technical aspects so early. It’s going to take some time to put everything together, and as so much of it is based on trigger words etc, and encouragement from parents it will be interesting to see if he moves forward straight away with the new classes in Feb, or whether he regresses quite a bit.
I’m sure Monkey will do it. Must be nice that the 2 of you are learning at the same time.