Swim Lessons

I keep thinking that I'll learn to like swimming lessons, but I haven't yet. It's a long two weeks of packing towels, floats, and lunches; lots of slathering on sunblock, handling wet clothes, and sitting in the hot sun. The good thing is that my kids usually love swimming and they eat and sleep well during lessons. However, these are the only two pictures I took of my kids this year. We look like we're having fun, don't we?

Ezra fought going every day. He'd start late and get out early. He loves swimming but he didn't want anything to do with the structure of a class. He'd crawl out of the water and pout on the cement and then slowly make his way over to me outside the gate. He'd scream and cry when his teachers would put the life jacket on. After getting out one day, and watching his class make their way over to the diving board, he decided it was worth it to wear the life jacket so that he could jump off. So he did do it and ended class on a good note. That was the only highlight, I'd say.
As for Nolan, he did great for the most part. That anguished picture was taken a while after he was escorted out by the pool manager. I watched one of his teachers plop him on the side of the pool and tell him he was in time out. Nolan was upset and saying, "I just didn't do anything!" Next thing I knew the teacher was yelling back at him. Not impressed with that teacher, needless to say. The other teacher tried to calm him down but by now he was inconsolable. That's when the manager brought him out. I was beginning to think he had done something really bad. We left early (Ezra was already done swimming anyway) and I had no idea what the problem was. The next day I asked his teachers about it and they said that they have a strict rule about not letting their feet touch the steps and that Nolan had had at least 6 warnings. I was fuming inside. He had been at the end of a long line of kids, squished up against the steps. Where else was he supposed to go? Didn't they think, "Maybe I should move Nolan to the other end so that I don't have to keep getting on his case for something he can't control?" Hmmm.... seems logical to me, but not his swim teacher. So I always put him at the other end for the rest of his lessons. I also told his teachers that I would appreciate it if they didn't yell at any of the kids anymore, it only escalates the problem. Luckily Nolan finished out the week doing a great job. I'm glad we don't have swim lessons for another year!