Swimming Lessons 2010

Swimming in the deep end

Coming down the slide

Jumping off the diving boardLooking to Shelbi to catch me

Hello everyone this summer since Shaleigh turned 4 we were able to put her in swimming lessons. She loved the shallow end and was afraid of 3 things: the deep end, the diving board, and the slide. She kept saying that she was too little for those three things.

Now please take into perspective that I would arrive after work everyday and sit with mom on a bench during the lessons. Shaleigh did really good swimming in the shallow end. One day she came up to me and said, "mom we have to go home now...we we still had 30 minutes left in the lesson...I asked her why and her reply mom I have to go potty." We went inside and let her potty and while in there I asked her if she would just go to the deep end of the pool and sit on the side with me with our feet in the water. She said no slide, no board. I told her she didn't even have to get into the pool unless she wanted to. We went down to the deep end, I kicked off my socks and shoes and sat down, Shelbi asked her if she was going to get in and in she jumped. The fear of the deep end ended.

A few days later I was sitting at the bench by myself and someone yelled my name I looked up to see Shaleigh on the diving board. She showed no fear as she jumped into Shelbi's arms. She would get out and repeat the action. Her fear of the diving board ended. That same day Shelbi asked if she would go down the slide....she did it. After she landed in the water she told Shelbi that it hurt her arms and she needed to fix it. Her fear of the slide still remains but not as much.

I'm so proud of what Shaleigh accomplished her first series of swimming lessons. She will now do just about anything.