And the result was a positive one...

The swim lessons yesterday afternoon turned out to be a good experience all around.

We got to the place quite a bit early. I'd allocated WAY too much extra time into picking the Princess up and having her change. I can probably pick her up about 20 minutes later than I did yesterday and still make it to the lesson on time. The Princess was anxious and she let me know.

Princess: Mom? My tummy has butterflies in it.
Me: That's what happens when you do something new sometimes. But butterflies shouldn't stop you from doing new stuff, right?
Princess: That's true. I'm just a little nervous.
Me: I know honey bun. But I think this'll be MUCH better than last year's lessons.
Princess: Okay.

Since we arrived early, we were able to watch the kids in the classes ahead of us. My kidlings saw all the instructors and how they handled the kids in the water. How the instructors kept a watch on all the kids and had EACH child perform the task. Each student HAD to do the task since the classes were so small. No one could miss out on learning. What was nice is that the instructors wouldn't PUSH the kids into doing something. The instructors would modify what they were doing with each child based upon that child's comfort level.

When it was finally time for my kids class, they opened up the gate. The one instructor called the names of the 4 kids in her class -- my two were part of this gal's class. The other two kids in the class were sisters. So the four kids walked to the steps of the pool. There were a bunch of instructors at the bottom of the steps. What cracked me up was that the Bear looked at one instructor and walked out right to that person. And basically EXPECTED that person to catch him when he couldn't touch the bottom of the pool. He just WALKED into the pool with no fear. It was amazing. Funny too. Because the instructor who ended up with him wasn't the one whose class he was in. HA!

Like I said, my kids were part of a class of 4. And there were five instructors in the class. FIVE! What was happening is that the new instructors at the school were being shown the methods of teaching of this school. It was nice. There was someone to keep watch of each child plus the main instructor. And what was nice was that at the end of class, the main instructor spoke to me and the other mom about our kids progress and what they'd work on the next class.

During class, the Bear was the fearless one. He did each task without hesitation. He was the only one who got dunked fully into the water. The Princess and the other two girls didn't want their heads underwater, so the instructor said they'd work on it the next class. He also kicked like champ when he blew bubbles into the water. The Princess did well with this task as well, but didn't sink her face into the water as much as her brother. At the end of class, the Bear was the one who went down the small slide first as the girls all hesitated. The Princess followed right after her brother. Then the two other girls went as soon as they saw that the instructors weren't allowing anyone's head to go under.

Both the Princess and the Bear are excited about the next class on Thursday. They're happy and anxious to learn more. I'm so GLAD!