As my eyes bounced between the two ends of the pool to watch Conor and Annika's classes, I was astonished by how well Annika is progressing. (Note: Conor did a great job yesterday, too, and even jumped off of the side of the pool to his teacher without hesitation, which was a first for him. I did get a video of him, but was across the pool, so it looks like a spec jumping into the pool. That said, great job, Conor!)
Her class has a fantastic teacher to student ratio, which is reassuring as the kids venture into the deep end of the pool, but knowing my kiddo is in THAT much water is a little bit unnerving for me. I'm never complete at ease when our kids are in the pool; my mama instincts keep me ready to pounce if either of the kids get into trouble.
The two other children in Annika's class opted to wear life jackets the entire time they were in the deep end of the pool; Annika wore hers for about 5 minutes and then decided to go without it. Mr. Brian, one of Annika's teachers, showed her a neat maneuver that scuba diver use to ditch their BCDs to get out of her life jacket: unbuckle it and then let your body sink out of the jacket with your arms up. No muss... no fuss!
Annika's favorite part of swim lessons is jumping off of the diving board. When one of her classmates was apprehensive about taking the plunge, Annika stood next to the diving board cheering her on. "You can do it! I know you can. It's really fun. You can do it!!" (She may have a career as a motivational speaker ... or cheerleader!) Thanks to Annika's enthusiasm and a little more reassurance from the teachers, the little girl did jump and really enjoyed it. After she was in the water, Annika continued her praise. "Yes! I KNEW you could do it. You did great! Wasn't it fun?"
Not only does Annika know how to fearlessly jump from the board, she now is very adept at swimming to the side of the pool and getting herself back on dry land.
Yup, she's our little fish!
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