Swimming Lessons

This year John and I talked about putting Anabelle in swim lessons. I asked around with the other moms for recommendations and got many answers- all of them expensive! At the age of 2 all we expected was for her to get a little exposure to swimming; things like learning to put her face in the water and just generally not be afraid of swimming. After looking at the cost we decided to wait till next summer. Then groupon came along, if you don't know what groupon is- you should. It is a "deal of the day" website that offers coupons for local companies. Groupon came out with a deal for swimming lessons at the Naperville Tennis Club, $45 for 3 weeks of swimming lessons, every day for 30 minutes and I didn't even have to get in the pool with her! Perfect for a mom with a new baby. It was a great deal, so we signed her up.

Anabelle had no prior experience swimming, in fact she had only been in a pool a handful of times. So she went into the "shrimp" group.  Overall, it was a positive experience, but probably because our expectations were low. I looked at it as a fun experience for her, and if she learned a little at the end of it- bonus. Anabelle is still young, and this was her first time taking any kind of class or lesson. I was blown away by how willingly she went with her teachers-people she didn't know. And by how willingly she jumped into the water every day. We never heard any protest, she loved every minute of her lessons and she was generally a good listener with her teachers. That being said, they didn't place very many demands on her :)  Over the 3 weeks she had many "teachers" and most of them were quite young. They were overseen by the same college age girls everyday. If we had paid more and it had not been her first year of lessons I would have been disappointed in the amount of teaching done- they could have pushed her a little more. This was also a good lesson for me in how challenging it is to get out the door and to a specified appointment every day. It was good training for when we decide to sign up for another class or preschool. 

Here are just a few (ha, ha) pics of our swimming lesson days :)  

Getting ready.

"I'm ready to swim!"

Anabelle had a lot of different teachers.

Jump!

Charlotte loved watching the swimmers in the water.

Paddle, paddle, paddle!

Putting her ears in the water.

Learning how to hang on to the wall.

Kick, kick, kick!

On Fridays all of the kids got fruit snacks for a treat, Anabelle thought this was the best thing ever!

Grandma was able to come to almost every lesson, which was a huge help!

We had to celebrate the end of lesson with a special lunch and ice cream of course!