Swim 2 and 3

Ella did so well and enjoyed swim 1 so much that we had to do a second round. She had great teachers for swim 2 and began learning some useful skills like treading water and putting leg and arm strokes together. Here she is flashing 2 fingers on each hand for swim 2.



She loves the kicking practice but still doesn't try to get water in her eyes.



Practicing her strokes. I loved that there were 2 teachers and 4 kids in the class. They got a lot of individual attention.



Underwater kicking.



Jumping in. Ella can jump in on her own and isn't afraid to go under, but not if she doesn't have to. I love the teacher's face in this one. She must get splashed 500 times a day.



Oh swim 2 we hardly knew ye. All good things must end I guess. Ella still maintained her passion for swimming through swim 2 and insisted that I sign her up for swim 3. But things were about to take a turn for the worse.



Enter swim 3 teacher extraordinaire. Note the sarcasm in my voice. He was awful. He barely taught them anything and half the time I felt like he was just killing time until the lesson was over. Plus he never started on time and half the time us moms were wondering what section of the pool to find him in. Sometimes we were on one end and then randomly he would switch it up the next lesson. We would wait on one end only to have to walk clear across to the other side. I wasn't being a wuss, I didn't mind the exercise, but it's a large pool and there were a lot of people to maneuver around with a stroller and a 4 year old. It took forever! Plus I tried to keep a low profile. I always came straight from workout and looked like trash and stunk like it too.



These pictures were taken on the last day of class. I brought my camera waiting for some good actions shots but there never were any. I had to beg Ella to go because she was bored out of her mind. He would spend the entire lesson having them do the same stroke back and forth. He was the only teacher and there were 5 kids in the class! Ella spent a lot of the class on the stairs waiting. Kudos to her for toughing it out though. I had tried talking to the superiors about switching teachers but that was a no go. School was back in and they were hurting for teachers. One day I even coached Ella to ask him to mix it up a bit. No luck. The last week however he actually did buckle down and had them all swimming under water with no help. Then on the last day he returned to his usual splendor and did absolutely nothing. Our peach of a teacher had cut himself and was therefore unable to actually get in the water. It's true I saw the 1mm band-aid myself. He literally threw some dive sticks for them to retrieve for half the class and then let them float the lazy river for the last half. I thought about going over and asking if an actual swim lesson was going to occur that day. I thought better of it though, it being the last day and all and him being deathly injured. Ella walked away with her certificate and a sucker and we were both glad to be done.

Sorry for the rant. It was therapeutic though. And Jim Bob or whatever your name was, lazy swim teacher, I forgive you and hope you never stumble upon my blog. We both have a lot of growing up to do.