New Swimming Level

Eliel has been swimming since September and even though we've had a few setbacks, he's been doing absolutely fantastic!  So fantastic that this week, he moved up from the baby level into the big kid level!  He is now a 'white' swimmer which is the same level as the kids I teach.  However, since he is still only two, he will remain in the baby class until he is 3, but will be working on the higher level skills.  By graduating levels, that means he can go underwater for 5 seconds, float on his back with assistance, hold onto the side of pool by himself and jump in unassisted.

Believe it or not, he loves going underwater.  When he jumps in, he almost tries to dive him by putting his head into the water first.  His teacher, Kim, thinks it's hilarious when he jumps in because of the way he does it.   Since Eliel is such an enthusiastic jumper, he currently sits down before he jumps in.  Hopefully once he gets the hang of jumping on two feet out of the water, he can practice jumping in the pool from his feet.

Jumping In

Ready to Jump

Eliel's second favorite thing to do is float on his back.  Ms. Kim sings a song that he loves:

I'm a little starfish on my back

I'm a little starfish nice and flat

I'm a little starfish on my back

Roll me over and swim me back

When she gets to the roll me over part, he likes to sing it himself as he rolls over onto his tummy and swims back to the wall.  Then he has to climb out which usually means he gets to jump in again... yay!

 If you could have seen the tears and the crying the first session Eliel took swim classes, you'd be amazed at the progress he has made!  He used to start crying as we pulled up in the parking lot even!  And now, he's a swimming machine.  I'm hoping that we can go swimming a lot this summer to practice.  It will be fun to see how he does in a different pool.  Here's a quick video so you see how he does at lessons.  So proud of our little man!

Swimming Machine