Thatcher Whisperer

Thatcher and the pool have not been the best of friends these last 3 years.  I have no idea why but Thatcher was not a fan of getting anything above his chest wet.  He would freak out if you even came close to trying to get him to go under water or jump off the side.  I have a lot of friends that have been putting their 3 year old children in swimming lessons so I figured I better look into it.  I know it seems early and it does give me a slight complex trying to keep up with how soon everyone starts their kids in activities here in Kearney.  Unfortunetly you have to somewhat play the game if you want them to play sports in high school.
I knew that group lessons the first time was out of the question- yes -Kearney has group lessons for three year olds.  I knew that Thatcher would end up sitting on the side and not getting much out of them.  So I signed him up for Private Lessons at the YMCA.  It is only 4 lessons but we wanted him to get comfortable with the water so that we could have a much more enjoyable summer and maybe do group lessons in the fall.  I don't expect him to swim across the pool but he needs to not be scared of the water.
Last Tuesday was his first lesson with Miss Marissa.  I am not sure what she says to Thatcher during their lessons because we have to sit behind the glass but she is working miracles on him.  I wish I had some of her tricks when I was teaching swimming lessons- they are almost genius ideas!  The first lesson was so, so and I thought we were not going to get anywhere with him but he warmed up and did a couple little things.  The second lesson he was so excited to go and see her.  He did awesome!  He laid on his back without doing his death grip, jumped off the side and put his head under water.  I was in shock.  In April he wouldn't even get into the pool at the hotel!  Last night was his third lesson and he swarm around without her assistance while holding onto a floaty.  I was so proud of him that he was okay without her helping him to do his own thing.

I took Thatcher swimming on Saturday and he was a fish.  He put his head under mutiple times and opened his eyes under water.  He jumped off the side more times than I could count.  It was so much fun to finally have a kid that enjoyed going to the pool.  I think we were there for almost two hours-which is a long time for us.  These swimming lessons are turning out to be worth every penny that we paid for them.