Swimming Lessons

For at least the past year Alicia's narrowed down her goal in life to one very specific thing - she wants to be a simming teacher when she grows up. All else is secondary. Finally this summer we got everything together to actually enroll her in two sessions of swimming lessons at the local town pool. We still decided not to torture the instructors yet with Ryan. He's still got that bit of attitude where I could see him trying to prove himself by just jumping in over his head when no one was looking. Overall he seemed to accept his fate pretty well as long as I kept him supplied with snacks and toys for the half hour.


This was just after one of her first days of lessons. She was so happy. It was even more special because one of her friends from Kindergarten and her little sister were the other two kids in her group. The three of them had a blast together.


Getting ready for swimming on another day. She actually informed me that having the swim lessons made her summer so much happier. I think it really helped her to have something to look forward to every day.

At first the girls were all pretty scared of the diving board. They would cautiously tiptoe out to the end and then hurry off of it as quickly as they could, all the time trying not to look down. After a couple of days though they finally got up the courage to let one of their instructors drop them down to the other. By the end of the two sessions Alicia was jumping off the side of the back wall to them.

I have to give her credit for courage. She really isn't a natural swimmer and she's terrified of the water. It's probably one of the greatest challenges that I've seen her try to take up for herself. She even stuck by it when her friend moved up to the next level after the first session and she was the oldest of her new group that had her, 1-5 year old, 1-4 year old, and two little girls who were probably Ryan's age. At the end of the two weeks she still couldn't swim by herself (I think at that point it was mostly her water fear holding her back) but she did lap around the shallow end section twice with just the kickboard and once with the noodle.

I still wonder how she decided so intently on becoming a swimming teacher but even after the challenges of the lessons it's still what she says she wants to do. She's anxiously awaiting next summer when she gets to go for it again. Maybe next year Ryan will be ready for some too.