Sweetest Blessings In My Life : April 2010

Did I mentioned that Shannon had developed phobia of swimming since she took swimming lesson with a "purple" (named him that since he's always in a purple wetsuit) teacher? It was just a flyer that was dumped into my mailbox. I called him, he was available and the fees were reasonable at $50 /4 lessons, so we went for it. It went on for less than 2 months before we called it quits. Not exactly sure what he said or did but his way of coaching certainly doesn't worked with Shan. She was sulking after the first lesson and did not want to continue with swimming. Over the few weeks, she had so much fear that she cried during lesson. I could see her finding excuses just to get out of water. It was so bad that she could asked to go toilet 3 times during the 30 - 40min lesson.

I was quite worried about the kids' confidence level in water and it doesn't help that Sky was also petrified about dipping his head under the water. I left it at that for a while since I do not want to put the kids off at swimming though i seriously think that it's a life skill that need to be acquired.

After a few mths, i was back on search for a swimming teacher. Did some "homework" by surfing around. I was sharing my concerns with this swimming teacher and he recommended to start off with a private lessons before enlarging the class size. A plus as Sky could also join in the class. Before that, Sky was deemed too young and short by the "purple"teacher. The kids were very apprehensive when they knew that they are going to have swimming lessons again. It took some time before they were coaxed to it. This teacher seemed to have a hand with kids and gotten a big approval from the kids. Since then, the class has grown to a 5 person class. That helps as the fee had dropped from $120/pax to $70/pax. Sky has no problem with diving his head under the water now and Shan could swim for a distance without the board. As a matter of fact, they had to swim the length of the swimming pool (with the float and board of course) as part of their weekly drilling exercise. The kids now looked forward to their weekly lessons. I learnt that a right teacher really meant a lot of difference.