fishie in a bucket

 SWIMMING LESSONS! Must be summer. I signed Maddy up for a two week session of swimming lessons at the local rec center. They have 30 minute lessons for two weeks, four days each week. There are four little girls in her class. They started pretty slowly the first day with putting various body parts in the water "Can you put your chin in the water?" "Can you put your right ear in the water?" The kids did their very best to put the least amount of body into the water while still complying with the teacher's request. They had to get a bit more creative about avoiding the water when he asked them to put both ears into the water at the same time! The practiced blowing bubbles and holding to the wall and kicking their legs. Not too much to worry about for the first day or two.

 

 

Since that first day, Maddy has definitely become braver. They play a game called "fishie in a bucket". Think ring around the rosie. One kid gets in the middle and all the others join hands around her. They sing/chant "fishie in a bucket, fishie in a bucket, how you gonna get out? How you gonna get out? can't go over it, gotta go under it" and then the kids are supposed to swim under the water to get under the arms. The first day all the girls just reached out and lifted up the joined hands or went under the teacher's armpit to get out. Now they all will duck down under the water as the game intends.

 

 

They play "motor boat, motor boat go so fast . . . " to practice kicking their legs. She likes this game as you can tell by her smile :)

 

 

 

They also play "chop, chop, timber". The kids stand up on the wall and, one at a time, tell the teacher what kind of tree they are (I often hear things like a butterfly tree, a mermaid tree, a dolphin tree, a bell tree  - very creative kids). Then he gently chops at their calves "chop, chop" then steps back and says "timber" and they jump in. The first few days Maddy squatted down so far her bum was almost on the ground. She reached out ('til she was almost falling in) and grabbed his hands before she would jump. Six lessons in and she still squats (not quite as far down) but will jump to him without having to hold on. Two lessons to go and I suspect on Friday she'll be trusting enough to know that she can just jump and he'll be there to lift her out of the water.

 

One of the biggest contributions to her confidence has been goggles. She doesn't have a clue how to really keep them on and they sometimes get water in them, but with them on, she is much more happy to put her head under the water. She's less concerned with water getting in her eyes and so she works on holding her breath and blowing bubbles. She's not constantly complaining, while rubbing here eyes, that some big kid splashed her. The thought has crossed my mind that I'm not letting her learn that water in her eyes is not the worst thing in the world. However, maybe that can be taught after she has learned that she can hold her breath and won't die if her whole head goes under. All in time right?



 

 

I'm wishing a little bit that I had signed her up for the next level a week or so after we finish this first session. As it stands, the classes all fill up within a day of opening so I'll now have to wait until next summer to get her into the next level. Oh well.

 

I'm glad that we decided to pay for lessons for her as I don't think I would have known where to start if I were trying to teach her myself. I'm sure eventually she'd learn - I did. But her teacher has so many games and little tricks to help the kids learn ("do 5 bobs and three rocket ships" "make your hands like ice cream scoops and reach for your ice cream - chocolate, twist, chocolate, twist"). I think I could teach a second child now that I'm aware of the tricks but I had no idea where to even start with Madelyn. Besides, I think she listens much better to "teacher" than she ever would to mommy.