First Swim Lesson

Beginning last Sunday, Shiloh started taking swim lessons at my work. We know that she loves the water, but wanted to help develop the basic skills she needs to be safer in the water and to help her grow in this area. Here are a few photos from the first session highlighting some of the skills we worked on, as well as some of the parts Shi found most fun!

We started by working on kicking across the pool and back several times... (and if you ask me, this girl already has a strong soccer kick! ... though my husband may disagree...)


Then we worked with the kids to swim to the side of the pool and hold themselves up at the rail or ledge, so that they would develop the ability to do this in the event they were to fall into the pool or something like that. (By week 2, Shi was a pro at this! She does little chin-ups at the rail.)


Here you see Shi making friends with one of the other little girls in her class...


...right before Mommy dunked her underwater!

It was interesting to learn that although most babies lose the instinct to hold their breath underwater by age 1, blowing in their face before dunking them underwater sometimes provides just enough cueing to help them recover this ability.

Her least favorite part was learning to lay on her back in the water... apparently none of the other babies liked this part either! We did it in stages... first laying back on mommy's shoulder... then out on mommy's arm... and then finally flat in the water.


And by this time, these kids were ready to have some real fun!


(Playing Ring around the Rosie in the pool!)




Today was week 2, and Shiloh loved going underwater and jumping in by herself (from a seated position... she hasn't learned to jump "out" from a standing position yet, so we are trying to avoid the head trauma!). I'm looking forward to seeing what she'll be doing by the end of the six weeks!