Summer Fun, Part 2

In early June, I enrolled the kids in swim lessons. The instructors were three sisters, one of whom went to our church. Kaitlyn was thrilled with the idea of swim lessons, but the picture above shows how she felt about them once we got there. Notice her clinging to the fence :)

The main goal of the week was to get the swimmers used to the water and teach some basic pre-swimming lessons. She absolutely hated going under the water and getting water in her eyes, and she had a few crying episodes because of those experiences. But most of the other tasks were more enjoyable to her.

She learned to kick her feet...

...and "swim" with the instructor only, no flotation devices.

And her favorite was doing the "starfish" where she floated on her back.

And she loved swimming with the noodle. Swim lessons were made more bearable since Hannah was there too. The two of them had the same fear of going underwater, but at least they were able to be miserable together--although you would never know it from those big smiles in the picture below!

And just for fun, I decided to enroll Ethan in the lessons too. There was a sibling discount, and I figured it couldn't hurt to give him some water experiences at an early age. So while Kaitlyn and a couple of the bigger preschoolers did their lessons on one end of the pool, Ethan and a few of his toddler buddies hung out at the shallow end and played pool games.

I think Ethan is enjoying "swimming" more than his sister!

Lots of fun kicking and splashing in the pool.

Playing Ring Around the Rosy...we all blow bubbles in the water!

Not a fan, though, of floating on his back :)

Kaitlyn (and obviously Ethan) are still a long way from swimming independently, but maybe they're just a little less afraid of the water now and will be able to advance a little more next summer--at least that's what I'm telling myself after paying for a week's worth of lessons :)