First Swim Lesson = Success!

Kyle had his first swim lesson on Tuesday evening and it went great! He will be going once a week and is in a class with three other 3 year old's.  The instructor is a high school boy (Mr. Marshall) that is really good with the kids.

Our little buddy is a lot like me and needs to know what's going on and what to expect, especially in new situations. So we'd been talking to him all week about swim lessons, what it's going to be like (i.e., mommy can't swim with you), what he's going to learn, etc. I knew he was going to be apprehensive about going into the pool area without me, but to my surprise when Mr. Marshall came to get the class, Kyle was the first one in line ready to go!

He did great the first few minutes, then Marshall wanted them to put their face in the water and blow bubbles. Kyle was having none of that. None whatsoever. Marshall saw he was getting upset so he let it go, but I was watching Kyle and I could just see the worry/anxiety in him. He had huge tears in his eyes that he was trying so hard not to shed, he was taking deep breaths and I could see him kind of talking to himself. Ugh, it was so hard to watch. Painful. I could just feel his anxiety and wanted to run in there and save him. He kept looking out the window at me and I'd just smile real big and wave, all the while looking at the clock thinking, "OK, I'll give him one more minute to calm down, then I'm going in there."

After a few (long) minutes he pulled it together and became his normal happy, playful self. He started splashing, then putting his face in the water on his own to blow bubbles. He even started chattering to the other boys! I was so happy for him and so happy for myself that I didn't go 'fix it' for him. Some of you may think I'm being overprotective or too worrisome or blowing it out of proportion, but that's ok...I know my boy and I know when he's really, really upset, but I also know that it won't do any good to rescue him from uncomfortable situations, especially something relatively small like swim lessons.

Anyway, he did so great the rest of the class and he was having so much fun. They blew bubbles, the floated on their backs and they got to go down a little slide into the water. At the end of class, each kid gets to show off what they learned. It's very cute. As we were getting changed after class, I said, "Buddy, you did great! You were having so much fun!" and he said, "Yeah, I was worried at first, but then I had fun." Sweet, sweet boy!

Waiting for class goofing off

Yay! Class is about to start!

Such a big boy!

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