Thursday, May 27, 2010

Swimming Test, Winter Clothes - ISR

Luca and Matteo both started ISR swim lessons about two weeks ago. For Luca, it was a (much-needed) refresher - having taken lessons for the past two summers. Matteo's a newbie - so he has about a month to go. He's not loving it - but he is learning. And - being around so much water for such a large part of the year - I'd rather him be a little pissed off in the water for a few weeks, then have him not know how to save himself in case of an accident in a pool or the ocean. He's doing really well, despite the tears. And, I have a feeling, he'll be swimming - and loving it, by summer.

Luca was also less than thrilled with ISR when he first started two years ago. But, last year, something clicked. And - we had a new instructor, who made all the difference. Miss Susan is amazing. Great with the kids and a wonderful instructor. I feel lucky that she's around to teach the boys how to get comfortable in the water.

Luca took his ISR "winter clothes" test last week...


Entering the pool in full winter(ish) garb.




Miss Susan getting ready to let him go. 




She's not actually touching him here, just waving her hands under his head as a non-verbal cue. 




"Starfish Float"




Heading towards the wall while getting in some breaths. 





Jumping in to "float, swim, float".





He swam and then turned into his float. 





Swimming under water, heading towards the wall. 





Back into the starfish float to get some breaths, before flipping over again and swimming to the wall. 




Success!


Now that he's "passed" for the season, we'll take him back every so often to Miss Susan so that he doesn't lose the good form he seems to show only her! He has a tendency to shift out of ISR mode when we're in the water with him, resisting our requests to "show us your starfish float", which we know he's more than capable of. Susan's suggestion is to have him start any water with a ten-second starfish and end it that way, too. We'll see.

5 comments:

Sally said...

Hooray for Luca!!!! ('Teo too!)

Nicole said...

Great job Luca!!!! So proud of him!!!!

Mike said...

Why is he wearing his clothes in the pool?

Anonymous said...

you are doing well with your kid and this is a good thing to teach them.
I would imagine that they go in the pool in just their normal swim wear some times.
what you could do with the older child to see if he remembers what to do is when they are going into the pool just for a normal swim is tell him that he can go in in his clothes and see if what he has been learning kicks in with out you prompting him to do any of what he has learnt this will also keep him on his toes as there may come a time when he needs to do this for real with out any prompting

Apparel said...

Why is he wearing his clothes in the pool?