Swimming Lessons

First day of swimming lessons...not sure she knew what she was getting herself into!! :)

Waiting for Aves to finish swim lessons

Jumping off the board....she did it! and was so great!

Oh wow, where do I even begin. Swimming lessons with Debbie Dolphins was quite the experience. Avery SCREAMED almost the entire time. The first day, she thought they were just going to swim and play. Well, that isn't the case. She DID NOT want to put her entire head in the water. This is a lady who has a very stern way of doing things. Not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, Avery probably needs a little more of this, but it was rough for the first 5 classes out of the 8. Every time she would cry, I had to leave and go wait in the car. She would tell Avery that if she screamed, which she does when she cries, she would have to get out and sit on the edge of the pool. Unfortunately I could hear her out in my car. I don't know, but it brought me to tears. I felt like someone else was taking authority over her and I had no control. I knew it was good for her, but I wanted to just take her and hold her. This was one of those times, kind of like taking them to the doctor, where you know it's good for them, but you know they hate it. I tried bribery and that didn't work. It was so cute, because, the last ten minutes of class she would do it and put her face in and get out and be so proud of herself. We would practice in the tub and  we even took her swimming at the Rec Center. In the end, with three days left, she didn't cry and would actually do the things that were asked of her. I told her that the word "can't" is a bad word and she can no longer use it. I told her that she needed to use her words with the teacher and tell her instead of crying. That did help. Debbie did tell me that over the 20 years that she has been doing swim lessons and preschool, she has probably only had maybe 4 of Avery's personality types. I had to kind of laugh. I love this girl, but man she is stubborn! I think swimming lessons taught Avery a few lessons, as well as me. I feel like in order to raise your children, you need the help of others, even if it is through a way you don't necessarily agree with. I think it was good for Avery to have a teacher who made her do it. Who finally got in Avery's head that she COULD do it, and with her help, she could help her accomplish something that she was afraid of doing.

Will I take her again....probably. At first, I was like, heck no! But I think the way Debbie teaches, she is able to get them to learn quickly in such a short time. It's almost like sink or swim! You do it, or you don't. You pass or you fail. You swim or your drown...not really but you get the idea. I will hopefully put her in more than one session next summer so she can have a refresher course...I think she needs a little time to forget as well!! or it could be a fight to get her there.