First Swimming Lesson

First day of swim lessons, sporting his new swim shirt and SOOOO excited!  Just waiting for an invitation to get in!!

"I already know how to swim!"

"See, I can swim!"  The instructor's attempt at appeasing Adrian's claims.

"Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes, we all take our ear swimming"

The most important rule of swimming is "Never swim alone"  ----"Mommy, why are we not supposed to swim alone?"  "Adrian, it's because it isn't safe."  5 minutes later...."mommy, why aren't we supposed to swim alone....?"  

We signed up for swim lessons for Adrian this year at Gem State Gymnastics/swimming.  We went swimming at a friend from church's pool a week ago and Adrian wore a life vest and had a blast!  You could watch his confidence rise the longer he was in the water.  The life vest gave him confidence that he "already knew how to swim"  So, when he went to his first lesson, he promptly told the instructor that he "already knew how to swim"  She was impressed and let him try it out.  He swam (sank) about 4 feet and she pulled him up and commented on what a good swimmer he was already.  You can't dash his hopes right from the beginning, right?  And, hey, it is always good to have an eager kid in your class rather than a timid one!  So, the rest of the day after the swim lesson he kept commenting on, "why did I sink? I thought I could swim!"  I kept trying to explain the life jacket concept and that the reason we needed lessons was to swim without the vest, but he kept bringing it up.  I guess his allusions of being a pro swimmer were a little dashed.  He did really well at the second lesson too!  He bent down and picked up rings off the bottom of the 2 1/2 foot part!  He may be the kid who in the end is a little too over eager to learn and is more of a liability for the instructor who has to pay attention to 4 other kids instead of the little boy who is so eager to learn to swim that he will venture out on his own without her help.  At least it is only 2 feet deep and he can stand!