Swimming Lessons

Well, after Haylie's jaunt in the pool a couple weeks ago, I got nervous about her lack-o-fear. She does a great job with those floaties, but I got scared that one day she would jump in without the floaties and get into trouble. Sooo, there is a golf course just down the street from our house that has a pool run by the city of Fresno. Lessons are only $15 for 2 weeks - that is 5 days a week for 35 minutes each day. That is a discounted price for our family size and income range. It is normally $30 - but STILL - talk about cheap!! So I was pretty nervous about Haylie taking lessons because she is so shy. I talked to her about it before we went and she was super excited, but of course, she got scared once we were there. And of course, it was not helpful that her regular teacher wasn't there for the first 3 days - so she was not able to establish a bond with him at the beginning.

Here she is on day 1 with substitute 1 (Rosalina):

Not happy - she cried pretty much the whole time - I had to walk away and hide in the shade so she wouldn't call out to me and expect me to rescue her.

Day 2 - substitute 2 (Nick):

He was very nice and very good with her and mostly carried her around but she only cried a little bit at the very beginning.

Day 3 - Nick again:

Do you see that? It's a smile!! They did a free swim on this day and since she is not able to do a free swim, Nick helped her and she got some good one on one time with him. Now she is really starting to like Nick.



She even jumped off the side to him several times.


Day 4: Her real teacher returns (Forrest):

She cried for the first little while with Forrest (she had JUST gotten used to Nick!), but he was good about getting her to "suck it up". He wasn't as "sweet" as Nick, and she still hasn't really warmed up to him, but she does what she's supposed to do so that is good. In this picture he is trying to get her to float on her back.


Every day after her lesson she wants to be wrapped up in the towel and sit in the sun to warm up - and she always has to have froggy silky too!



This is just a cute shot I got today while she was hanging on to the side.


This is the certificate she got on the last day! She was so proud!! Sooo cute!

She really has learned a lot - she can't swim on her own yet, but at least she has learned a few techniques - like the doggy paddle and kicking her legs. She even knows how to hold her breath now for a short period of time.

I am probably going to sign her up for the next session too - and I am going to try and get her into a class with Nick since she seemed to warm up to him a bit more. Maybe, just maybe, she will start to come out of her shell a bit more after this experience.