Swimming Lessons

Dada has been anxious to get Clarita into swim lessons this summer. We swim all the time in our own pool and she loves it, but doesn't really listen to us when we try to get her to swim. She has this super awesome swimsuit that we refer to as her bomba because it looks like she has a bomb strapped around her chest. It has styrofoam inserts that can be removed to decrease buoyancy over time. It allows her to float with her arms unencumbered and she literally needs no help "swimming" all around the pool. This, however, leads her to believe that she can swim when she actually cannot.

Swim lessons are normally in the mornings when we are not home, but Dada found out that the local pool (which is literally at the end of our block) was having an evening session so he signed her up. Note that this session began a week before my due date, but that didn't stop us. The first day Dada got a call saying that the lessons were cancelled due to a "fecal incident" aka someone pooped in the pool. We thought that sucked, but Clara has already appeared to have forgotten about the lessons so he didn't mention it to her and she never asked. The second day I had a meeting so Clarita and Dada went to her first lesson. We weren't sure what the lesson would be like or if an adult was required to go in with her. Turns out there were two instructors for three to five kids and the parents didn't have to do anything. Clara was unhappy about being taken away from Dada and cried at first. She then got over it and happily splashed around with her instructors (although she said that she did not like Arianna, the one who took her away from Dada). She even blew bubbles and went underwater!

The third day, literally minutes before Clarita's lesson began, someone puked in the pool. You would have thought it was hot lava the way they evacuated that pool. We thought it wasn't that serious as it is a huge pool with tons of chlorine and a tiny bit of puke, but apparently it had to be shocked before water polo practice (which was in an hour) and her class got cancelled. She was upset, but got over it when we told her she could swim with Dada at home. We thought it was a little strange that the pool A) never had us sign any type of waiver B) gave no instructions about swim diapers (a lot of public classes require the cloth kinds) and C) gave no instructions about eating before swimming to help avoid puking. Clarita went home and went swimming and it was crazy how much less afraid she was after just one lesson. She was jumping off the steps without her bomba which meant she was going underwater and climbing out of the pool and getting back in at the deep end. While we were glad that she was not afraid, it made us nervous at how not cautious she was when she still couldn't swim.

On the fourth day (and second actual lesson) Kate and I went too and Clara did not want to get in the water, she wanted me to go with her. It didn't help that the instructor that she had just been telling me she did not like (aka the one who took her from Dada the first day) was the one to take her in. She got over it and eventually somewhat followed their instructions. She sometimes would refuse to do what they asked and run the other direction or get out of the pool and run over to me. Such a stubborn little girl. Clara did appear to have fun though and kicked with the kickboard and even tried to use her arms (she calls it swimming like a bug).

Clara's second week went well with no cancellations. I took her Monday hours before going into labor since Dada had to work late. Tuesday she went with los Tios and did good. She kept telling us that she only wanted to swim with Paige and not Ariana because Ariana was mean and she did not like her. We tried to tell her how nice she was, but I think the fact that Ariana was the one to take her away from Dada the first day made Clara not like her. If Ariana came up to get her she would yell "No!" and run away. It usually took some coaxing to get her to go with Ariana. On the last day, all of the kids got to jump off the diving board. This was pretty much the whole lesson and they got a popsicle when they were done. We got there early and saw Clara's friend Ryan jump off. She cheered for him and then started talking about wanting a popsicle. She went willingly with Ariana and swam a couple of "laps" before heading to the diving board. Clarita was very excited and kept talking about the popsicle she was going to eat. She got to the end of the diving board and then got a little scared as Ariana held her over the water. She dropped her in and another lifeguard caught her after she went under water. Clarita immediately turned and started "swimming" to the side! She then started crying "Mama Mama Mama" but was fine as soon as she got out of the water. She jumped one more time and then insisted on her popsicle.

All in all, we weren't too impressed with the swim lessons. Mainly due to the lack of organization and the fact that two lessons got cancelled and they made no attempt to reschedule them or refund people's money. Since there were only eight lessons, missing two was a lot. The place is staffed by high school kids and they didn't really seem to know what was going on. After the second cancellation they said they would reschedule but when I asked on the last day told me that they didn't think anything was going to be done about the missed lessons. I think I would opt for a more organized place next time. But, Clarita had fun and learned some new skills so it was worth it.