Jumping In

I think it was the end of April we started swim with Rebekah. Somewhere towards June / July I was going to take her out. She hated going to lessons and would often cry though out. Her teacher suggested I do open swim with Rebekah (something I didn't even know was an option at the time) and we did. Every day they offered it we would be there. Mainly I would let her play and try to increase her comfort level in the water. Sometimes I would encourage her to show me what she was doing in class. She refused to go under or even put her face in.

Then one day she did it. She simply decided she was ready and took off passing 3 swim levels in the matter of months.

Still she would not go under. One of the goals for the class she is in now is to dive under and pick up rings on the bottom. So, baby steps, right? I put the rings on a little floaty turtle and pushed it under as far as she would let me. She started doing that but still it was hard for her to think of going any further.

Opposite her class is a teacher named Mr. Shawn. He does this cannonball thing with his students: he has quite the upper body strength so when he throws the students in the air they fly. It scared the heck out of Rebekah. But she was fascinated with the teacher.

At Rebekah's last lesson he was student-less. So he decided to help Ms. Pricilla with her students and latched on to Rebekah. He showed her all the things he could do under water. Rebekah wanted none of it but watched intently.

Then during open swim she was playing with a baby. She threw the baby in and then... well, you need to watch. (I think it's at the end of the video.)

So amazingly proud of my brave little girl who went from getting slashed on and crying while in search of a towel, who couldn't even sit in the water, to jumping in all by herself! Wow!