PARENTS AND TODDLERS IN THE POOL
MoIra SImes
PARENTS AND TODDLERS IN THE POOL
We never thought swimming lessons would be this fun ! Our Pre-Kindergarten class have been attending a 4-week swimming program with Baby Dolphins , owned by our English teacher Moira Simes and her husband Yunus Uygur , who are both certified Birthlight baby swimming instructors . The best part of this weekend activity is that one of our parents had to go into the water with us ! The lessons are in English and last about 45 minutes . We learn how to swim and learn new techniques ; but most importantly , we spend valuable time with our moms and dads . At first , some of us were a little hesitant to swim in a deep pool , however , with the Birthlight approach that our teachers use , they helped us feel very comfortable and safe . Needless to say , there are many social and physical benefits to our swimming lessons . Furthermore , however , is how we are learning to overcome our fear of the water without forceful conditioning , trusting our parents to keep us safe and to build confidence in deep waters . Once we enter the pool we splash around in our parent ’ s arms and then follow our swimming teachers ’ instructions . We get to swim on our parent ’ s backs and enjoy the ride while they swim across the pool , blow bubbles in the water with our mouths and nose , learn how to streamline while holding on to our parent ’ s arms ( keeping arms , body and legs straight and kick ) and the most enjoyably , stepping onto the floating mat and jumping onto parent ’ s arms . Some of us can make flips on the mat before we jump into the water ! We even had one classmate asking his dad to shake the mat to see how long he could stand on it before he fell into the water . He called it surfing ! Our teachers would end the lesson with a song called the “ Toddlers in the Pool ” where our parents would move us to the left , right , up , down , and we would splash , kick and blow bubbles in the water . The hardest part of the lesson is getting out of the pool as we have so much fun swimming with our teachers and parents .
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