When we were in cold and snowy Leadville for Finny’s birthday, the four of us spent a lovely afternoon at the (very warm!) indoor pool just down the street from my folks’ place. We took our pool noodles with us and splashed around for quite some time. Finny was really going for it! With a couple noodles wrapped under his chest, and a supportive Mom-o or Dad-o hand underneath, that kid did lap after lap up and down the pool. We decided that it’d be perfect timing to sign him and Henry up for swim lessons, so that they could get really comfortable with the water and start learning how to swim in time for summer.
Thanks to our friends the Wiggins, we found a good deal on individual swim lessons at the San Jose State campus aquatic center. We go every Saturday morning, and each guy has a half-our, one-on-one lesson with an instructor. Finny’s instructor is Jess (who has a small, terrific dinosaur skeleton tattoo on her arm), and Henry’s is Kiyomi. Finny is having a ball and has already made really good progress. He’s practicing “torpedo arms” and kicking, putting his face in the water, holding his breath, and floating. Henry is a little more hesitant, and a little less cooperative – he likes to hang out in a little closed-off area called “the cave” on the side of the pool, but Kiyomi does a great job cajoling him further out into the big pool for practice. He floats and half-heartedly kicks, but mostly he lets Kiyomi haul him and his noodle around the pool.
The real game-changer for both guys has been goggles! Finn spent a lot of time wiping water out of his face during the first lesson, and Henry’s not a big fan of anything in his eyes, either. John ran out and got a 3-pack of goggles before their second lesson and both guys were much happier with them on. We’ll keep doing the lessons until the guys are feeling comfortable splashing around and nailing some of the swimming basics, and we plan on visiting our neighborhood pool a lot this summer!
