Flying Barrel Of Monkeys

I signed up MonkeyBoy for a two week session of swimming lessons. He goes four days a week, although yesterday’s session was canceled due to thunderstorms. He enjoyed it the first day and did everything his instructors asked. Today, not so much. He’s a stubborn and clever little boy.

The instructors are working on getting the kids to put their whole heads under water. So today they were asked to put their chins in the water. All three kids in his class bobbed down and went under water to their chins. Then they were asked to put their noses in the water. The two other kids bobbed down all the way so that their noses were in the water. Not our kid. He leaned over so that his face was parallel to the water, and then lowered his head until just the tip of his nose hit the surface of the water. Then he quick flipped his head back and screamed “I did it!” He gets points for creativity, but I don’t think it really helped much with learning how to submerge his head.

Today they also worked on instructor-supported floating on their tummies and backs. MonkeyBoy wasn’t having any part of that and after one attempt, he crawled up out of the pool and put his head down on the side. I debated about going over and giving him a hug and a pep talk, but decided instead to just sit on the side, take pictures, and see how he worked it out for himself.

He laid there on the side pouting for a few minutes until the instructors brought out the dive toys. That piqued his interest and he jumped back in the pool to play. While the other two kids would go under the water to pick up the toys with their hands, MonkeyBoy again used his creativity to conquer the task. He worked and worked with his toes until he kicked the toy up and then grabbed it with his hands as it floated toward the surface, again missing the point of the lesson but certainly pleased with himself.

He did end up letting the instructors help him float for a little bit by the end of the lesson, but it wasn’t his favorite part.

I asked him after the lesson was done why he got out of the pool and sat on the side with his head down and he told me, “I didn’t want to float, so I got out and took a nap.”