Swim and Gym

Hazel and Charlie took their first “class” last spring.   “Swim and Gym” at the Y.  I thought it was perfect.  An hour of “gym” where they spent about 15 min “playing” each game.  It took them a while to get the basics of the games (my kids were pretty clueless at first).  Emmeline and I sat on the sidelines and cheered.  It took a lot of cheering at times to get Hazel engaged in the games, but by the end of the 8 weeks she got pretty aggressive.  Charlie was delighted by the “spouts” (I love how he says that word) and in there like a storm from the get go.  Sticking out his tough in concentration and loving every single minute. 

After an hour of running around the gym we all scrambled to change into swimsuits and get to the pool for their swim lesson.  I wish I had taken some pictures of the swimming part.  It was my favorite to watch. 

Charlie swam with lots of “bubbles” on his back (floaties) and got some of the basics down but wasn’t asked to do anything too hard. 

Hazel was put in the older class, with no bubbles…..and she was asked to do things she’d never done before.  She was terrified during the first lesson, crying (especially when they made her swim on her back).  But she was doing it.  She was doing something hard and scary and she was managing to hold it all together.  There was something beautiful, even tear jerking, to me in watching things unfold.  I’ve been her main teacher for 5 years and she struggles against me a lot. Sometimes I feel like she spends so much of her energy struggling against me that she has little left to do the hard task ahead of her.  It was nice to see the great trusting relationship building between her and her teacher.  They were getting each other, she was responding and she was doing something scary and hard.   I was intensely proud.  By the end of the 8 weeks Hazel was swimming the length of the pool alone.  She was a little fish.  She was as delighted with herself as I was with her.

Sweet Emmeline and I spent a lot of time cheering and bonding and spilling cheerios all over the floor.