Little Swimmers

We have a lot of activities that we do during the week that I don't really take pictures of or blog about anymore, but I thought I would share a few from swimming this week.

 

We have been in class since January & they will finally finish the end of May. There is a summer semester, but we always pull them out of class since we swim all summer & get plenty of practice with us. Sadie has really developed this semester. I mean, she's always been a good swimmer & very confident in the water, but she is in a class with 1 other girl who is a year older than her & they are really working on technical stuff now. She swims with a kickboard & has learned to come up for breaths in between strokes.

 

She loves jumping in & now they have a contest to see how far they can jump out & then they have to turn around, swim back to the wall & climb out:

 

 

She has always floated on her back since she was in the water at 6 months old, but it is probably her weakest area. She floats fine by herself, in fact, you can sing the abc's & she can float by herself that long, but now they are learning to swim, turn & float on their back & then turn & swim to a destination. This has been a little harder for her:

 

 

Another change this semester happened when she told me that I didn't need to come sit by the pool anymore :( She said she was a big girl & she wanted to go by herself so she makes Sophie & I sit out in the waiting area. I knew it would happen eventually! Thankfully I get to head in & pick her up when she goes down the big slide:

 

 

Sophie has also been in lessons & she loves the water but I don't think she is a natural swimmer like Sadie. She definitely has the breath control & easily goes under the water for 10 seconds by herself, but I wouldn't exactly call it swimming. All of the other babies in her class are swimming & progressed but Sophie likes to do water gymnastics - she literally just flips around it looks like she is dancing under the water. Her teacher (Mrs. Jean - the same teacher Sadie had for 2 years) is flabbergasted. She said she has never had such a busy body in the water quite like Sophie. Go figure - her personality is so different & her techniques in the water do not surprise me at all! But I have enjoyed going to class with her each week & she loves being in the water, even if she is doing what she is not supposed to be doing :) Unfortunately, I don't have many pictures of her because I am always in the water with her, but luckily we had someone take a picture of our class the other day:

 

 

Hopefully both of the girls will get plenty of practice this summer now that we have our own pool in the back yard!