Swimming Lessons

Another June activity that I have yet to write about is Jackson's swimming lessons.  With a pool in the neighborhood at Mom & Dad's house and one less than 100 yards from our new house in Fort Collins some basic swimming skills are a must.  Plus, after not being a fan of the water as a toddler at all, Jack has finally taken an interest and we've been spending lots of time at the pool.

He no longer hesitates to dunk his head, jump in the water or pretend to swim.  But he always has floaties on his arms.  Without them he has absolutely no skills.  Enter Maggy and private swim lessons.

Maggy is a total sweetheart and Jack's first lesson was a huge success.  He tried everything she asked and did way more than I expected him to.

Unfortunately, he went backwards from there.

While he never threw a total fit and always went through the motions of lessons, by the last one Maggy said she had done all she could with him until he got over his fears.  She was walking a very fine line of pushing him to his limits without scaring him away from the pool forever.  And she was stuck.  Turns out he has gotten way too dependent on those floaties.  As long as he is in shallow water where he can stand, he has absolutely no fear.  As soon as he gets to the deep end, he gets nervous and refuses to do any of the skills he is totally capable of doing.

As a result, we're taking a break from the private lessons for a few weeks to see if we can get him over his fear of the deep end on our own.  And the floaties have been retired.  No more safety net.  Hopefully we'll get him in a few more lessons before the summer is over, but for now we're just going to keep working on it on our own.

If you're looking for us...we'll be at the pool.