Swim Lessons....or something like that

So, last year I blogged about Peyton and her first set of swim lessons at the YMCA. Well we had so much fun with those that I decided to go ahead and register her again to do two weeks of swimming lessons at our YMCA. I figured it would be good to keep her interest in swimming going and also have some good parent-child bonding.

Well, times have sure changed and hence our experience has changed significantly!

This was her then....

And this is her now....

Note that the only picture I could get of her was her trying to rip off her shoes to run into the pool immediately.

Well, not only has she grown up significantly, her ability to vocalize opinions and her knowing what she wants to do and how has changed! Last year we did the lessons at a different YMCA and were in a lap pool. This year we did it closer to our house and this pool is the family fun pool with slides, sprinklers, fountains and so many distractions. This new pool and her nature is a recipe for disaster in an organized class structure at this age!

There are several things going wrong with swimming lessons this year, one, Peyton has no fear of the water and loves to sit under the water until you pull her up and then she laughs. She holds her breath, blows bubbles but constantly wants to be under water! Second, she wants to do it herself and the word, "MINE," is used constantly. She does not want to be held, she wants to do it herself including swimming in the deep end. Third, she is way to distracted with the fun parts of the pool and does not want to participate as much as I try.

So, swimming lessons are not going well. Monday night, I took her myself and barely survived the lesson but it had its good moments and the bad moments, I was hoping it were a one time thing. But last night I made John come too just to have some support and we both couldn't corral her. She was off doing her own thing and had no desire to listen to us, participate or do anything besides play with the fountain or sit under water. We seriously look like those insane parents who have NO control over their toddler....and mostly because we really didn't! I am sure to most people it would be very amusing to watch but we are not amused in the slightest.

In conclusion, I am debating whether we can endure another 6 days of swimming lessons! I hate to quit something once we started something but honestly this is not working. The reasons we did this was to help her get used to water (I think that is accomplished) and have some nice parent-child bonding (not working). I know that a large part of it is her age and ability to differentiate between play time and lesson time and the highly distracting pool is not helping and well, the other part is her strong willed nature which I love but am struggling with learning how to encourage it while corral it when needed!

John has agreed to take her tonight while I lead our small group and then we will try both of us tomorrow and then evaluate whether we want to try next week!

I did tell John last night that it would almost be amusing if we did pull her out of swimming and she became an Olympic swimmer and I could tell the news how she had to quit swimming at 2 because she couldn't pay attention....hmm!