Swimming

Elsie was old enough to take swimming lessons all by herself this year. No more mommy and me classes for us! It is sad but exciting at the same time. When I talked to her about them before we went to the first class she sounded excited. But then she started asking if I would go in with her. I had to say no but I would take her to her teacher. The first day came and she was a little hesitant to take the teachers hand and walk away but she did it. And she loved it!!! I was a little scared when the teacher took the 5 students on a "field trip" to the deep end of the pool. They all grabbed onto him...one on his neck and two on each arm and he dragged then to the deeper part of the pool where none of them could touch. He did this so they could practice jumping into his arms and getting in and out by a ladder. But come on what if one of then had let go while he was taking them there??? Well this went on for eight days and nothing bad ever happened.

They played lots of games like blowing up a bollon, aligator aligator, sharks in a basket and ring around the rosies where they all go underwater at the end. Each game helped them work of different skills. Like going under water or doing arm scoops.

Some where along the line she asked for goggles since several of her classmates had them. We were in the store and she saw them so we got a cheat pair to begin with...in the end we got a nicer pair as the cheap pair was not comfortable. But she never would let me tighten them that much so water always got into them.

On the last day of swimming lessons they turned on the big water slide. For the last five or ten minutes of class most of the kids took turns going down the slide. Of course Elsie's teacher who has no fear of the water brought all four kids that where there that day up the four flights of stairs to the top. He went down first with one of the kids on his lap. He had instructed the kids to take turns going down by themselves after him. I could not believe it but Elsie did it!! She came down the slide and her teacher caught her. But she did not go down by herself again. They went down two or so more times this time on her teachers lap. When she was all done I asked her what it was like. She said it was scary and that when she went down by herself she turned around and came out on her belly. When I just asked her what happened this is what she said "Its just a big huge slide. I got on my bum and when I came out I got on my belly. I came into my teachers arms." By the way Elsie has gone down several slides like this one before but always on our lap!!

Another fun event was when her teacher took her to the diving board. She describes it like this "I got on the diving board and when I got to the other side I got scared and someone came and helped me. That's what I did on the diving board." It was very cute she got all the way out to the edge and then sat down. She was too scared to jump into her teachers arms so another teacher came and dropped her in the pool. She never did that again either.

Over all the lessons where great. Elsie loved them. She can not swim but I did not expect her to be able to. She is more familiar with water and if she is in the mood you can get her to show off some of her new moves.