Swim Lessons

I signed the twins up for swim lessons at the Kroc Center. 8 beginner lessons that were only 30 minutes long, and the pool is indoors so I thought we would try. Also, when we went to the Kroc Center this spring for a night out with respite care, they totally wanted to get in the pool.

We talked about getting ready for lessons for a couple weeks before hand. It seems to help them when they have some time to prepare and know what to expect. On the first night, I picked them up from school and we went and had a snack before changing into our suits. They were so excited to go into the big pool.

There were 6 kids total in the group. Only 2 would get in the water. This is a whole lot of what happened the first night....Alex the pool manager trying to convince them to get in the water, sit on the steps or side of the pool, etc.

We worked our way up to sitting on the steps barely. Payton did a better job than Parker. The teacher was nice enough, but she just didn't know what to do with so many kids in the group that didn't want to get in . And with only one teacher, the twins just didn't have a lot of extra support.

 The second night really wasn't any better. They didn't get much further.

Parker had a really hard time with the noise in the pool area. He kept telling me to dry him off and asking if he could take off his suit. He kept telling me he'd had an accident and I had to remind him his suit had gotten wet from sitting on the steps of the pool...poor guy just couldn't separate the two. In the few days after our second swim lesson he had a  few nightmares, one during nap time at school, and all anyone could get out of him was "big water". Bath time for him is never really easy, but this past weekend he turned all out physical. Preschoolers with anxiety and sensory problems don't mix with swim lessons.

So we've decided it just isn't worth it for now. We'll spend the summer hopefully visiting the lake, maybe going for a couple open swim times when we can get in with them, turn on the sprinkler and fill up the water table and maybe try again next year.