Swimming Lessons

This summer, we signed Cody and Jaden up for their first-ever swimming lessons. We were so pleased with all that they learned and were proud that no tears were shed during lessons! 

The first week, Cody and Jaden were in a class with two other boys, so their teacher had a couple college-age helpers in the pool with her during their lesson time. One of their first activities was playing Humpty Dumpty-- rocking back and forth on the pool edge and then falling into the pool with the helper. The boys seemed to love this.

Jaden (wearing the white and orange swim top); Cody (all orange swim top)

After falling into the pool, Jaden and Cody would practice their kicking across the pool and back.

They did more kicking practice with kickboards (this lady pictured is their actual teacher).

And then they practiced putting their faces into the water and coming up for air. At first, Cody really didn't like the concept of putting his head underwater, but he gained a lot of confidence with this after our 6 days of  lessons.

The first week, their teacher seemed to focus a lot on gaining confidence with full submersion, so the boys had a lot of opportunities to jump into the pool.

As you can tell from the video (taken on Day 2 of lessons), Cody wasn't quite as comfortable with this full submersion yet!

I'm not sure if they were practicing kicking or back floating here, but Cody's stance cracks me up!

On Day 3 of lessons, the teacher suggested that Cody and Jaden try wearing goggles. This really made a difference with both boys and their willingness to dunk their heads underwater.

On the last day of week one, the teacher had all 4 boys jump off the diving board. Jaden and Cody's first experience with this was only the week before in Arizona. And at that time, they were wearing floaties and jumping directly into someone's arms. So, this free-jump into the deep end was a little intimidating! Both Jaden and Cody held onto their teacher's hand while they jumped. :)

On our second week of lessons, Cody and Jaden were the only students in the class. The teacher would often switch off working with each boy. The boy not with her would practice picking up either diving rings or pennies on the stairs.

This week, Jaden and Cody were ready to practice actually swimming back and forth to their teacher in the deep end. They still have a ways to go before becoming confident swimmers, but they made a ton of progress compared to week one (when both were hesitant to even put their faces in the water)!

Here, the boys were practicing how to come up for air while still kicking. This step was a bit too complicated for them. They'd often bring their heads up and then go right back down into the water, completely forgetting to take a breath!

Here, the boys were attempting to catch a ball while jumping into the pool.

Cody's jumps always turned into full-out belly flops! I'm pretty sure he was just straining to reach his teacher as quickly as possible. 

Jaden and Cody's proudest moment was on the last day of lessons when they both jumped off the diving board without holding their teacher's hand. :) Both boys definitely made the most progress in this area-- their level of comfort and confidence in the water.

Since Houston summers go on FOREVER, we are looking forward to many more weeks ahead of us to continue practicing all these important swimming concepts!