End of term swimming fun
After the excitement of the badge presentation last week, this week’s swimming lesson was the last of the ‘term’. That means the toddlers get to choose their favourite activities and games to do in the latter part of the lesson.
N never pipes up, but he loves activities involving the mats. Luckily plenty of the others had put in their request for mat activities. Being a small class this week as well, meant plenty of time for each of them to have a go at things where sometimes in a bigger class, it takes a lot longer for everyone to have a go when it’s single activities.
They had some ‘long distance’ swimming practise first with their woggles. It amazes me that they can all swim the best part of 50 metres (with a jumping in session in the middle). N takes ages, mostly because he wants to look round and see what’s going on instead of focusing on going forward. He was also trying to blow bubbles the whole way….all very well, but doing ‘breathing’ isn’t going to propel him anywhere. It’s great that he’s willing to now put his face in the water though.
N surprised me with his kicking. They did a spot of football to practise their kicking. Usually on his back, he just does an occasional kick, but shove a ball there, and his legs go like mad! It just shows how children really respond to props and making activities more fun.
The funniest was when they had a go at ‘it’s a knockout’ or ‘Total Wipeout’ style mat play. I wish someone had had a camera. Would have been hysterical to look back and see how ridiculous it looked. All they needed was the silly costumes.
They had 2 mats in the pool with them held apart by the teacher, and they had to dive bellyflop in, swim to the first mat, clamber onto it, stand and run across it before trying to run/swim across to the second mat, run across that, and then back off that before swimming back round. It was so funny, the children loved it. I think they all got to go round 3 times, so no wonder N’s tired after swimming lessons; it must be really hard work for them the distance they cover.
N’s also getting used to going underwater. He still doesn’t like it, and he won’t grab a toy or sinky that’s on the floor of the pool once he’s under, but he will say yes if I ask whether he wants to try and sit on the bottom of the pool. If we’re looking for sinkies, he’ll happily go underwater if I go with him, but I have to pick up the item. We’ll get there, it’s just a slow process. N just likes to do things in his own time.
We’ll miss next week’s lesson, so I’m hoping to take N to the leisure centre when we’re away. He seems quite excited about this, although the last time he went to that leisure centre, he was going through his water wobbles stage, and the wave machine scared him. Hopefully he won’t remember and he’ll have a fun time showing off to his friend we’re going to see.
What type of games do your children enjoy doing at their swimming lessons?