I was expecting a little more instruction for me on how to introduce Simon to the water or some pool safety tips for babies, but it doesn't seem like that's really what this class is all about. The instructor just told us to all just get into the pool, so I held Simon and we walked down the steps into the shallow end. He didn't seem surprised at the amount of water or that I was in there with him... he just kept leaning over to splash just like he does in bathtime. When everyone was in the water, all of us stood in a big circle to start the class.
More details (but sadly, no pictures) after the jump...
It seems like this class is basically a wetter version of the Kindermusic class that Simon and Jenn took a few months ago (which Simon loved). Since the point of the class is to get babies comfortable playing in the water, that's probably a pretty good approach. We sang lots of songs that involved moving around in the water, occasionally including some toys. A few highlights that I can remember:
- "Who Has Come to Swim Today?" (to the tune of "Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush") - we went around the circle asking each babies name and then singing a verse for them, like "Simon has come to swim today, swim today, swim today" etc. I sang this one for Simon on the walk home and he thought it was pretty funny, so hopefully he'll get a kick out of it in the next class.
- "Five Green and Speckled Frogs" - first each baby got to pick a little floating rubber animal from a big crate of them (Simon chose a dark green frog). As we sang the song, when we got to the line "one jumped into the pool" we all tossed the toys into the middle of the circle. Then for the rest of the verse, we "swam" into the middle to get our toy and bring it back to our spot in the circle. The swimming was really just me holding Simon so he was on his belly, to get him used to being lying in the water like that. He really enjoyed this... it was fun to move forward through the water, he was good at doing swim-like movements with his arms, and he was so excited every time he grabbed his toy. He did occasionally move his face a little too far down and into the water which was startling every time but didn't seem to bother him all that much.
- "Three Little Monkeys" - we started out in the big circle for each verse. On the line "along came the crocodile, quiet as can be", we all moved towards the middle. And then on "SNAP!" with the kids surrounding her close by the instructor did a big splash in the middle. Simon *loved* this - when he's in the mood for it (as he was for most of the class), getting water splashed in his face is super fun.
- Jumping - this was both the best and the worst part for Simon. The kids all stood/sat on the edge of the pool and then "jumped" into the water. Even though Simon could probably stand and maybe jump on his own, for this class I held him standing up and then helped him jump in. He really had a blast with the jumping up into the air and splashing down into the water... as long as his head didn't go under at all. The instructor said this is a good age to start getting them used to dipping their head under, so on a few of the jumps I had him splash down a little bit further into the water - not fully submerged or anything, but enough so that part of his face was dipping in. That part didn't seem to go over so well... he never got upset or scared, but he always came out looking shocked and it took him a little bit to fully reengage in playtime. I don't think I'll do that with him for at least the next class or two until I'm sure he's happy and comfortable in the pool.
- Cleanup - the instructor had a big milk crate full of floating colored balls. She pushed the crate upside-down down to the floor of the shallow end and then turned it right-side up so all the balls popped up out of the surface of the water and scattered around the pool. Then we all had to go around ("swimming" like in the Speckled Frogs song), collect the balls, and bring them back to the instructor and put them in the crate. Since Simon is really good at putting things away, he had a lot of fun with this. But after the head-dipping experience while jumping in, he was a little more bothered when his mouth/face got wet during this activity than he was before.
- "If You're Happy and You Know It" - splash your hands, kick your feet, blow some bubbles, etc. Pretty fun (especially the "jump up high" verse) but Simon was starting to be a little overwhelmed with the whole swimming idea so he didn't enjoy it quite as much as he might have.
- "Goodbye Pool" - I don't really remember this song too well... Simon was cold and tired and mostly ready to be done at this point so I wasn't fully paying attention. I do remember that instead of following along with the movements for the song, he just kept waving (since people kept singing "Goodbye") which was pretty cute.
As fun as it was, there were a few things that made class a little challenging. The pool was heated, but not enough to keep our skinny little guy from shivering and chattering his teeth almost immediately. He didn't seem too bothered by it (he does the same thing when playing with the sprinkler) but it took a little while to get him warmed back up after class. Also, the girl next to us in the circle (who was there with the only other dad in the class) was hysterical the entire time - she just did NOT want to be swimming. Simon's a pretty caring guy, so seeing this other kid so upset stressed him out a little bit. He was able to get past that fairly quickly though, especially after seeing how much fun most of the other kids were having.
The biggest thing I want to change for next time though was about food. I'd always heard you're not supposed to eat right before swimming, but I thought that was because you'd get cramps while in the water. Since Simon wasn't going to be doing any actual swimming I didn't think that applied to him, so we fed him a couple of tasty food pouches before heading to class. Unfortunately it turns out there's another reason why not to eat right before swimming: with all of the bouncing and jumping and swallowing of poolwater, it can be pretty tough to keep your meal down. Good thing the pool is well filtered and chlorinated...
No comments:
Post a Comment