Swim Class - Guppy

During the second session of swim class Ava advanced to the Guppy class.  This was her first time in the pool without a parent and was a good learning experience.  Ava learned to follow direction and by the end of the session had picked up on most of the skills being taught.  Ava will definitely be in this class again next year, but it is amazing to see the progress she has made.

This is the first day of Guppy class.  Ava doesn't really like to jump in.  She likes to "slide" in.

Ava liked when they played, "motor boat, motor boat."

Ava hated "the shark" game.  It is really called what time is it Mr. Shark.  The kids would usually be fish and one teacher would be a shark.  The kids would slowly swim up to the teacher (kind of like mother may I) and then the shark would turn around and try to catch the kids as they swam back to their side.  Everytime they played this game Ava would say she had to go to the bathroom, so she could get out of playing it.  In this picture she is actually playing because the teacher let her be a shark.  She didn't mind that as much.

It is hard to tell, but in this picture Ava is all the way to the left and plugging her ears.  Sometimes during class the teachers would sing a song and be silly.  For some reason Ava didn't like this much either, so she would plug her ears and drift away from the group.  I don't think she liked when the older kids splashed and sang really loud.

This is how Ava would swim at the beginning of the session.  She would try to kick her legs with her arms stretched behind her.

This is one of the teachers working with Ava on different leg movements.  They taught them "monkey, airplane, solider" to show them how to move their arms and legs.  Ava also learned "monster arms" which help her learn to move her arms up and out of the water while she tried to swim.

This is Ava swimming on the last day of the session.  She never had a problem going underwater, but toward the end she would actually try and swim.  She can kick her legs well and improved on her arm movement.  I think next year she will be awesome.

This is a happy, but cold girl.  Ava loved swim class.  She always looked forward to it each day and still talks about it.