Swim lessons {round two}

One of Jacob's coworkers told him about the swim teacher who had taught her 3 y/o daughter and it sounded too good to be true.  Her daughter was also afraid of the water, but by the end of the first day she was swimming on her own.  We were very interested in the lessons for Katie so we looked into it.  The teacher is Mrs. Glendy, and she teaches water survival to babies and kids.  She's been teaching for 44 years and her lessons get booked out very quickly.  Luckily, we were able to get Katie in last minute (at the end of July) because another student had to cancel.  It was a 5 day course, 30 minutes per day.  

Katie cried from the first moment, partly from being separated from me, and also from being in the water.  So that was hard for me to watch Katie while she was crying and calling my name.  It was fascinating for me  though to see how Mrs. Glendy taught.  She is so patient, especially since Katie is very stubborn!  By the end of the second day, Katie could bump her head on the wall, put her hand on the ledge and turn herself around.  She could also swim on her back by herself!!  She got better and better at kicking her legs, but still needed improvement with moving her arms by the last day.  Jacob came out to watch her one day, but it made it even harder for Katie to have both of us there.  She kept calling, "Mommy," and "Daddy," over and over.  It broke our hearts, but we wanted her to learn.  

The hardest thing was when Mrs. Glendy raised Katie up over her head and tossed her down into the water.  Yikes!  It's so she could experience what it's like to fall into the water head-first and know what to do if it ever happens later.  Katie did great at kicking her way back up to the surface each time.

The last day, I got in the water with Katie so Mrs. Glendy could show me how to keep teaching Katie what she learned that week.  Jacob and I practiced with Katie the rest of the summer so she could keep up her skills.

After her lessons, Katie has been more confident in the water and willing to go in the deep end with us.  She doesn't cry now like she used to when we put her head under (for just a second) to test her breathing.  We are really happy we had her take lessons from Mrs. Glendy!