The Graduate

He did it! After 10 long weeks of swim lessons and 1 failed attempt to "test out", our Jack is officially a swimmer. He and I both endured a large commitment to accomplish this, but we are so proud. The first 4 weeks were filled with tears and persistent "I don't want to" 's. Almost enough to make me call it quits, until I would be reminded of the end reward by witnessing a fellow swimmer graduate.

The next 4 weeks still included some heavy whining, but lots of progress. And by week 8, well, Jack was a swimmer. That was until test out time. At that point he had to wear summer clothes while the instructor simulated a scene of him "falling in". She literally tossed Jack in as if he had fallen. He did great! He came back up from under the water into his back float and after a moment of regaining his composure Jack swam to the stairs. The problem came with the winter clothes. Besides the fact that when soaking wet they weighed a ton, Jack's biggest issue was clothes don't belong in the pool. Especially a jacket and tennis shoes. Anxiety set in before he even began the test out. Needless to say, he panicked once in the water, tugged at his jacket, pulled on his pants, and wailed. He did not float. All his skills went down the drain, so to speak.

So weeks eight through ten were spent building confidence again and talking the clothes thing up. We called it "silly", I reminded him it was "just one time", and we watched other kids do it. Finally at the close of week ten, confident that he had the skills, we gave the test out another shot. And well, let's just say Jack , was able to save himself and make it to the side of the pool for his trophy! He didn't like it, but he did it!

Since then he has showed me his trophy daily. Just to hear me say "you did it", "you can swim and float"! He gets that proud grin on his face from ear to ear and then quickly reminds me "no swim today". Which means...'no lesson today, okay Mommy?' As for the club pool, we practice for a few minutes every time we go, sometimes VERY reluctantly on Jack's part and then he hits the baby pool. It's his comfort zone and being a boy of caution, he feels right at home. Regardless of if Jack wants to swim in the big pool or not, at least Clay and I comfortably feel that he can swim and could save himself if something ever were to happen.

It sure is good to be a "Graduate"!

Jack in his "float" in the middle of the pool.

Flipping over to swim--he knows he is close to the stairs. (at this point he has done the "swim float swim" sequence about 2x to get to his destination)

He made it! Ahhh...boy does he loves the feel of safety.