Safe Start/ISR Classes, Week Four

The kids are in week four of their Safe Start infant survival swimming lessons. Before we started classes, I scoured the internet for videos and articles on the program, just to see what to expect. But seeing it happen with your own kids is really incredible. It has been two totally different processes with the kids, which I appreciate. I didn’t realize they would tailor the program to each child’s preferences and needs. Of course, the idea is that they can float and/or swim, should they ever fall in water accidentally, so they keep it pretty regimented. But they pace the program based on each kid’s abilities and needs.

We knew Bean would do great. He loves the water, and he wanted to take swimming lessons. This really helped because he was eager to learn, and it showed. Because he was a little older, they started working on swimming first with Bean since he could understand instructions better. They taught him how to hold his breath underwater and swim to the side of the pool or to the instructor’s hand out in the middle of the pool. When he got really good at that (took about a week), they started teaching him how to float. That was a little harder because he had to lay still in the water, and three-year-olds aren’t crazy about laying still. Plus, it was an odd sensation to just float unassisted out in the water. He would lay there for a minute, and then when he realized no one was touching him, he’d kind of freak out and start trying to swim. But the instructor started making currents underneath him (you can see her doing this in the videos). The currents let the kids know that someone is there, without anyone having to actually touch them or support them. I thought that was pretty neat.

The next part they taught Bean was how to roll over in the water. The day they taught him how to do that was the only day Bean cried. And that was really hard. When Gracie cries, it is a mad cry, which is a lot easier to watch than if she was scared. But Bean’s crying was fear-based, and that just about tore my heart out. I knew it was good for him to learn, but it was still really hard to watch. He was crying because what they do is take them by the head and roll them over face-down into the water, and then roll them again face-up. The water part was scary, but what he really didn’t like was being led by his head. I understood what they where doing, though. They want the kids to learn to move their body themselves, so they lead with the head and the body turns without having to be touched by someone else. That way, they learn what it feels like for their body to turn in the water, not what it feels like when someone turns them in the water. But the head part is uncomfortable, and weird. I imagine it was very similar to a horse being led by their bridle.

Bean cried that day, and all the way home, and I worried that we had really scared him into not wanting to swim at all. But we went home that night and got into our pool and just played for a long time. Then, Chris and I talked to him that night about what a big boy he was. We asked him about what scared him and what part he didn’t like (he said having her hold his head), and then we talked about why they had to do that. The next day, I kept talking to him periodically about how proud I was of him, and how excited I was to see him float and roll that afternoon at swimming lessons. Then, at the swimming lesson, Chris came (he normally isn’t able to be there because of work), and that was an extra confidence booster, too.

During the lesson that day, Bean was better prepared, I think. He told us before he went in that he was going to be floating and rolling that day, and that he wasn’t going to cry. He got into the pool, and it was much better. He knew what to expect, so he floated like a pro and when it came time to roll, he did great. You could see him panic just a little bit when she took his head, but he looked over to me and Chris, and we cheered and told him how great he was doing, and that seemed to relax him a bit.

It took a couple days for him to get used to the rolling part, but once he did, the instructor began putting all three steps he had learned together into one process: swim, roll, float, roll, swim. It was really incredibly to watch. Here is the first time he did the sequence on his own:

We started week four on Monday, and now they are working with Bean on doing the process over and over and over again. Sometimes they have him swim over to a wall, and sometimes they have him swim to the instructor. Sometimes they ask him to float for 3 seconds, and sometimes they ask him to float for 5 or 7 seconds. Bean is a task master, so having a little task he can do is right up his alley. He is loving it again now, and that makes lessons much easier to handle as the mom!

In this video, you’ll see our instructor fanning underneath Bean as he floats. She isn’t supporting him, he’s floating on his own. She is just making those currents that let him know she is there. Also, she checks his foot periodically to check on his oxygen flow to make sure his body isn’t too tired. Sometimes people see we looking at his foot and they are like, “Uhh… what’s up with that?”

The program is six weeks long, and I am 100% confident that Bean will be able to swim, roll, and float all on his own and fully clothed by the end (which is the program objective). Gracie? Now, she’s another story. I’ll share about her tomorrow. For now, let’s just say that girlfriend is not as eager as her brother…