There were 6 kids in his class and 3 teachers. The first day they all swam together. The remaining days they were split up--Ry and the twins with one teacher and the other 3 kids with another teacher. The third teacher was usually with Ry's group but would kinda switch off. The lessons were only for a two weeks but I saw a huge improvement in Rylan. I really just wanted him to have fun and be comfortable in the water. He loved it!!
(And a side note...the class before Ry's was for younger kids and there happened to be an 'Asher' there. In talking to his mom I found out there was another 'Asher' in his class. And to make things funnier we discovered that our three Ashers were all born the same year and all born at the same hospital and all born in October! Crazy, don't ya think??!! I think they should become best friends :)
All three boys loved to jump into the pool. Rylan had brief moments of hesitation before each jump but he always wanted to do it again!
Floating around in the life jacket may have been one of Ry's favorite things! Maybe because he felt so safe with it on. He's talked about it over and over again, wanting to get his own life jacket!
He got pretty good at floating on his back and by the end, he could do it all by himself!
Jumping off the diving board---oh, so scary for him! It may have been on the third day when one of the twins asked Tami if they got to jump off the diving board. The twins were waaaaay excited! Rylan asked "Do I get to jump off the diving board? If I don't want to, do I still have to do it?" He was quite nervous about it. So, the first time he did it...he walked to the edge, holding his noodle, and stood there taking deep breaths. He'd take a deep breath and bend his knees like he was gonna jump, and then he'd exhale and look around. His little knees started shaking but he kept trying and trying to get the courage up to just jump. We were all cheering him on but I really could tell he was so scared. I was just happy he was at least trying to be brave! His teacher finally told him he could sit on the diving board and fall in. She practically had to push him into the water where the other teacher caught him. I'm not sure why it was so scary to him since he had jumped into the pool from the side several times. Fast forward to the last day and you'd never know what fear he had on that first day. It still was not his favorite thing to do, but he'd get right up there and jump!
Because of the weather, one day of lessons was re-scheduled for a Saturday. We had other things going on on that Saturday so Rylan's last day was the Friday prior. The last day is the day the kids got to go down the waterslide and Rylan was reeeeaaallly looking forward to it. So...they let Rylan go down (3 times) on Friday before lessons started. I didn't get a picture of it (just video) but he loved it! He had a look of terror on his face each time before splashing into the pool but he came up smiling :) Shortly after his slides down they began lessons and the lightening began as well. Out of the pool, lessons were cancelled for the day. Big Bummer! Kevin even came to see him and his new skills! I was so sad for Rylan that his last day was cut short and he would be missing the next day. Darn weather!
Next year we'll for sure be doing swimming lessons again!
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