Swim Class

Before the babies were born, I knew we would be doing swim classes with them as soon as possible. I grew up on the lake and love the water. I want to make sure they have the same love of the lake and swimming from an early age. Their brief encounter with Hamilton Lake over the summer went well. I want to make sure this coming summer is just as good.

Most mommy and me classes start accepting babies at 6 months of age. Once we made it through the craziness of the holidays I knew it was time to start them in a class. Luckily for us, our local YMCA's next session of swim classes started the first week of January. We got them all signed up and were ready to go. I was so excited for their first class. My mom offered to join us for class since Robbie couldn't be there due to work.

More than one person, including Robbie, questioned why I was doing swim lessons with them. "They're only 7 months old. You can't expect them to learn to swim." Those were pretty much the exact words from Robbie's mouth. This was of course after we had registered and paid for the class. I assured him I didn't expect them to learn to swim, but I did want to familiarize them with swimming and being in the water.

Our first class definitely involved some crying. They were also the youngest kids in their class. I remember thinking that the class was too advanced, and maybe we should have waited. They wanted the kids to move their arms and kick their legs. Harrison and Brooke only wanted to cling to their person.

By the time class was coming to an end and we were singing "If You're Happy And You Know It," I knew we had made the right decision to start them when we did. 7 weeks later we have finished our first set of classes. Are my kids swimming like baby Michael Phelps? Not even close, but they do love to kick their legs in the water and relax while floating on their backs. Alligator jumps put a huge smile on their face as they jump of the side into the water, assisted of course.

The class was definitely worth the $42 and it's something we look forward to every week. I just signed them up for the next session of the same class which starts in a week. Now we still have Monday afternoons to look forward to.

Thank you Grandpa for taking these videos.  They are from the last class of our first session.  The lighting at the pool is not good, so the video quality isn't great.