Swimming Lessons

Today was Joshua's first swimming lesson and he did very well. We got there late but jumped right in and started trying to get him to kick, he didn't but that's ok. Then we got a toy to try to get the to reach for and he did that, put something in front of him in the water or not and he will reach for it. This encourages them to put their arms out in front of them like they will do when they start swimming. Then we got in a circle and did three songs, the wheels on the bus, the hokey pokey and ring around the rosey. We did lots of movement, lifting him in and out of the water, moving him from side to side, front to back and splashing. Normally they wait until the second class but since all the babies were doing so well we actually had our first dunk. We did 4 choruses of ring around the rosey and each time dunked them a little more. In the first it was to their shoulders, then to their chin, then to their nose and then a full dunk. He did pretty well even though he was suprised he didn't cry, just complained a little bit but then he was fine. He didn't cry until we took him out of the water, he just loves the water.

There are about 12 parents & babies in the class. I'd say Joshua is the youngest or one baby girl might be younger than him but the oldest is no more than 2. So he'll do this class next summer too and then should be able to move to the toddler class. The younger babies were actually more content in the water than the toddlers. Jamie came and took pictures and video, I'll add the video later.