Monday, January 5, 2009

Swimbabes

Last year for Christmas, Grandma Doris gave Riley and Tyson swim lessons through a program called Swimbabes (swimbabes.net). The focus is on infant/toddler swim survival skills, so eventually the kids can learn to jump in the water fully clothed and turn to their backs to float for at least 5 minutes. The course the kids are in right now start at the basics and will teach them to turn and float on their backs for a 10 second count, in case they ever fall or walk into water over their heads. We'll take them two nights a week (Mon. and Wed.) for the next four weeks and hopefully be able to continue on with lessons beyond that.

When we attended the initial safety seminar on Saturday, we brought Cooper along rather than getting a babysitter. He just sat quietly in his carrier next to the pool, but the instructor commented that he was at the perfect age for the program... It was actually amazing to watch video of such young babies swimming and floating on their backs with their head above water. I suppose they lived in water until they were born, so it would seem more natural to them. They had openings for the infant course on Wednesday, a half an hour after the kids' class, so we signed Cooper up! I'm a little nervous, but I think it will be great for him- I can already tell it's going to be wonderful for Riley and Tyson! They both did really well tonight. The one drawback to the program is there are no cameras allowed while the kids are doing the lesson, only on the "Blue Ribbon Day" when they achieve the goal of turning over on their own in the water and floating independently for 10 seconds. So, hopefullly I'll have a few "Blue Ribbon" photos to post in the near future!

5 comments:

MSB said...

I think infant swim lessons are a great idea! My brother and I both did them. Neither one of us are super athletic swimmers, but we are not afraid of the water at all and can both swim. Randy actually fell off our docked boat when he was about 2 years old... while all the adults around panicked, he calmly swam to shore, still holding his fishing pole!

MSB said...

Oh... I forgot to say... I can not speak from experience as a mother because my husband refused to let me put our girls in swimming lessons... he thinks that Olivia is just now old enough.

Jamie said...

This sounds really cool! I'm interested to see how it goes, especially with the wee one!

Lisa Christine said...

How wonderful! That's so interesting that they teach infants so young! I'll be interested to hear how that goes :)

Kathleen said...

Sounds neat, something I might have to look into next summer, great idea! Keep us posted on their progress