This week Darren was able to attend Ethan’s swimming lesson so we decided that because he hasn’t had the chance to go in with Ethan before he would join him in the teaching pool.
Darren has been swimming with Ethan before at the weekends and it has caused some melt downs with Ethan in the changing room. Me and Ethan have our own little routine when we get ready and throwing Darren and an unknown changing room into the mix has been too different. So Darren was under strict instructions that included the following
- I will get Ethan ready before the swimming lesson and dressed after the swimming lesson.
- Use the woggle during the lesson, we did go back to the armbands last week for a brief period but the woggle is better as we get some movement from Ethan.
- Ethan likes to have time playing on the steps to get used to the water, let him do this but not for long otherwise you will be there all day.
- Don’t touch Ethan as he will cling to you for the whole lesson but don’t let go of the woggle as we are not floating 100% with just that yet.
- Do not put Ethan on his back when the other kids do the zoom part of the lesson, Ethan hates it and then will just cling to you and finally
- You must sing along to all of the songs but no putting Ethan under the water for the ‘Grand Old Duke Of York Song’!
So armed with all of the above information Darren and Ethan took to the water and I watched from the viewing room.
About ten minutes into the lesson Darren let go of the woggle and by some miracle Ethan didn’t go under the water, he had learnt to keep his balance.
I was just getting over being proud of this moment when I could see that Ethan started to move his legs in a circle motion as if he was riding a bike. He did this last week for a few minutes but it didn’t really move him about the pool. Darren started to walk backwards and Ethan followed him. He moved around the pool following Darren and he actually swam two lengths of the teaching pool. The length of the teaching pool it about the width of the normal pool.
I couldn’t believe it, we have been going to these lessons for just over a year and finally we have movement that isn’t being pulled along or just spinning in circles. If we keep this up we may even stand the chance of moving up to the next class.
As this point Darren was feeling very confident and it was time for placing the kids on their back. The swimming instructor just looked at Darren and shock her head as if to say I won’t push your luck!
So now Darren has given me a list of instructions for the next class and I’m really looking forward to seeing if Ethan remembers how to swim.