The new challenge of swimming lessons!

This week we started swim lessons......swimming lessons can be challenging for a lot of kids but it is especially challenging for two kids that have not been swimming very much.  At the beginning of the class the 3 kids are required to sit at the edge of pool and not get in until I give them the ok to get in....once in the pool, there is a large step they can walk around and play on until its time for Mrs. Erin to work with them individually.  They all sat at the edge patiently, they got in once I gave the ok but from the get go Melody was unsure about the water unless she was being held......tightly!  I began to encourage her to walk around on the big step and she acted as though she was taking steps for the first time.  As the class went on there was some crying but the class was shaping up to be much better than I had anticipated.  At the end of the class, we were working on teaching the kids to put their head under water and being that Melody is older and has never done that, she was having a hard time at grasping the concept of keeping her mouth closed and not swallowing the water........this was of course difficult for her to do b/c of the crying and small fit she was having.  That training session ended with her taking in one large gulp of water and then vomiting it up in the pool.  (sorry Erin)  After all the drama they were all proud of themselves and it was way better than I thought.  

Today was day 2 of swim class and the kids were excited to go swimming again.  They go into the water just as they had the day before but this time when Erin went to take Mia and then Joey they were a little resistant.  It was time for Mia to work on floating on her back and she did not want anything to do with that.......she cried, screamed, kicked her legs and arms all over the place and when that did not work she propelled her legs over her head so that she could flip herself up and grab onto Mrs. Erin......Joey's floating experience was similar but w/o the acrobat manuever.......the funny thing about the floating experience is that they both had floated a hundred times better the day before!  Erin worked on several more things later in the class with Mia that again ended with Mia screaming, crying and foaming at the mouth.  (when she is not comfortable with something, she can work herself into a hysteric fit like no other!)  Mia was not so enthusiastic after this class and once we were home, she told me she did not want to swim anymore.

Hopefully day 3 will be better!