Swimming Lessons

My sweet husband is a devoted father. He is also what I would call very "safety-conscious." He is not way out there, but he does have his moments. Even on our dead-end street, with very little traffic and a nice flat landscape, even before we had kids, we could never ride a bike without a helmet. So, it isn't surprising that the kids would need to take swimming lessons since we have a pool in the backyard. He signed Zora up for lessons with a local school that has the reputation for being very strict. (They are sometimes called the Swim Nazis.) I have been very anxious about it, but after solicting feedback on the local Mommies site, I felt a little better.

Well, yesterday was the first day of Zora's swim lessons, and I was very relieved. It was one-on-one, but there were two instructors working with two kids in the same pool. The boy ahead of us was crying and crying for his momma, and we got there early, so we were listening to that for a few minutes, and talked about it, too. We took my DD's rubber duck so she would have a "friend," and the teacher let her bring the duck in and did things with the duck, too. (According to Zora, the duck didn't like going under the water, though. ha ha) I was just pleased that there was very little crying and that the first day was a positive experience. We've been reading books and talking abou this for a few weeks to get prepared, so I think that really helped, too. Zora told me she cried, but only for a minute, and that it was okay.

I think maybe this school has gotten a bad rep for being tough when they are actually just even-keel and matter-of-fact about the kids who are upset. There was no "ooh, poor baby" and no "you're just being a baby" either- just very much like it was okay to be upset, but we will just keep working in the water... We'll see how the rest of the week goes.

update-
Day two of swim lessons took me off guard- Zora sat down and cried! Right up until we were at the pool's edge, she had been smiling, and then, all of the sudden- tears! It didn't last long, but she still wasn't too happy when we picked her up 25 minutes later. She was doing what they asked of her. It was impressive to see her go under the water alone and come right up at the pool's wall! She did that twice for me to see. So they are definitely tackling the safety thing right off the bat. I guess you could think of it like immunizations- they are for your own good, even though it isn't pleasant at the time.

All afternoon Zora has been talking about her 30 minute lesson. I think she is enjoying it, but it does make her anxious. We'll see how it goes tomorrow. We have a pool, but are having the liner replaced, so can't use it right now. If we could, I really wonder what she'd be doing!