Swim Lessons!

Hattie's FIRST swim lessons ever were this week!  Val Taylor, a long-time friend of the family and member of FBD (even my Sunday School teacher when I was a senior in high school), has taught swim lessons for years, and Hattie is finally old enough to take lessons from her!  When Val works with 3s, she strives to give the children confidence in the water, focusing on blowing bubbles, kicking, and floating on their backs.  Hattie will learn more formal swimming skills next summer.  She still can't swim independently, but I can already tell she is learning and getting stronger.  We've only gone to four lessons and we have four more left...Hattie LOOOOOOVES them!  She's so excited to see Ms. Taylor every day, and I am extremely proud of how good a student she is.  She listens so well, and when Ms. Taylor says "jump"...Hattie jumps!  The other girl in Hattie's lesson is actually a friend of hers from Awana, which makes it more fun for both the girls.  They're both strong and they (nicely) challenge each other.  (***Bragging moment***The other little girl frequently says she doesn't want to do certain things and she climbs in and out of the pool to tell her mom things, but Hattie never does!  I always encourage Hattie when we get in the car after lessons, telling her how proud I am of her swimming and obeying Ms. Taylor without argueing or whining...that's a BIG deal for a 3 1/2-year-old!  There...I'm done!)  Anyhoo, we have one more week left, and I think Hattie will really miss them when they're over!  Here are pics from the first day!

"This is the way we splash the water, splash the water..."

Showing the girls the ladder in the DEEP END! :)

The Monkey Crawl...the ended up crawling all the way around the entire pool to the deep end by the end of the week!

Kicking forward

Kicking backward

Kicking on the kickboard all around the pool

Blowing bubbles

Blowing more bubbles

Well, hi, Mommy!

Kicking and blowing bubbles with the noodles

Kicking and blowing bubbles without the noodles!

Blowing bubbles with goggles on...they got their whole face in the water!

Catching ducks

Row, row, row your boat...

One last trip around the pool

Success on Day 1!!!

Day 2!!!

Blowing bubbles again...

Each day, they repeat the things they did the day before and do a few new things...by the end of the week, they were jumping into the deep end from the side of the pool and from the diving board (Ms. Taylor caught them of course!)...and at the end of each day's lesson, they get to pick a prize from the treasure chest.  Would you believe, Hattie finds a new "princess ring" every time?!?!  Can't wait until next week!