Saturday, December 19, 2015

Splish Splash

I think the ability to swim is a basic human life skill.

So as soon as Ryder was old enough, we enrolled him in swimming lessons. Unfortunately, he ended up in the hospital just a few days before his class was scheduled to start, so we had to postpone the whole thing until after Thanksgiving. But he's been in lessons for a few weeks now, and our little water baby is absolutely loving it!


On Tuesday and Thursday evenings we head to Si View Aquatics in North Bend for Ryder's "Parent Tot" class. I really like this program because the class size is small, the teacher is great, and they focus on a lot of important skills: verbal cuing, reaching and pulling arms, kicking, bubble blowing, submersion, climbing out and safe entry. Plus since it's a parent and child program, Stew gets in the pool too — super fun father/son bonding!


Ryder has improved so much in just a few short weeks!

In the beginning, he was a little bit timid and reluctant to try some things, but now he's much more confident in the water, and we see more improvement at each lesson. He still struggles with swallowing water (you'd swear I torture him with dehydration the way he wants to drink the nasty pool water) and he really dislikes floating on his back. But he loves splashing and practicing swimming on his tummy, retrieving floating balls and toys, and "walking the plank." Overall it's been such a fun and positive experience.











Swim lessons have also been a great reason for us to go out and do something as a family on weeknights during the winter (when we'd likely just hibernate otherwise).

Fun times.

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5 comments :

  1. I love the small class size. We did this with our oldest once but the class size was 15 kids + their parents. Way too big to be of much use, but it was cheap. We should enroll in a private school, to get that smaller class size. Good job getting Ryder in the pool early. The earlier the better.

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  2. Go Ryder Go :) He looks like he is loving it...

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  3. Oh my goodness! How cute! He looks like he's having so much in these photos (and so does Stew, for that matter!) :)

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  4. I love this! Being that I live in water central, I'm big on swim lessons- I think this is so important and hreat. Kudos to you guys. Love the pictures.

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  5. These photos are too cute! I think swim lessons are one of the best things you can do for children!

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Talk to me, Goose!