Kaitlyn really surprised me at her swimming lesson today. The teacher told us that she has to put her face in the water to progress. Which she does when she jumps in, and doesn’t realize that’s what’s happening. We’ve been practicing in the bathtub. This morning I even offered up a bribe… put your face in the water like the teacher asks and I’ll buy a new Barbie for our upcoming vacation.
We got to the pool a few minutes ahead of the lesson. Her friend was already there, already in the pool, and already swimming under water! I was stunned.
The lesson started and Kaitlyn refused to put her face in the water. The teacher told her she was done… no more lesson today or any day until she can do it. He took her friend into the big pool and left her with me. Crying.
I wasn’t going to let her get away with that. Her friend can do it; so can she! I told her that she could try or she could go home, but standing in the pool crying was not on the list of options. She decided to stop crying and try harder.
First, she’d put her head under water but be looking up at the sky. The teacher stopped by and told her this isn’t flying lessons… it’s swimming lessons and that means look down in the water.
After a while, she figured out to put her feet out behind her and sort of wiggle and she’d swim. She started jumping up and going under water doing the splits. She started swimming in-between my legs. She had gone from chicken to fish in under an hour.
She has another lesson tomorrow. I told the teacher before she left that I’m bringing her; he agreed she’d made a lot of progress. (He said he thought it silly for a parent to pay for a lesson when the child isn’t learning anything new.) On vera… on vera. *
(*we’ll see… we’ll see)
Since the next day you were Barbie shopping, it must have worked. Congratulations!