Swim Lessons and Play Zones

Last week, Brennan attended a swim lesson everyday from 1:30 - 2 PM.  I have been curious about the Tom Dolan Swim School, which is located next to the Dulles Wegmans, but wasn't sure I was ready to commit to year round lessons, which is how the school is managed.  They offer week long camps in the summer that don't require such long term commitment, so we decided to check it out.  Brennan's class worked on water comfort and floating on the front and back.  About a week before the class started, Brennan started "swimming" underwater in the bathtub and lost all fear of going underwater, which was perfect timing.  During class, he was pretty much bobbing his head under the water the entire time.

It was fun to see how comfortable he got practicing his back float.  On the first day of class, he was a little tense about leaning back in the water, but improved everyday.  In the photo below, taken on Wednesday, the teacher wasn't holding onto him at all.  At the end of the week, I was told that Brennan was ready to move to the next level, if we decided to continue with this school.

Towards the end of each class, the four kids in his group would kick this giant board along the swim lane.  Brennan enjoyed the classes a lot and told me that he wanted to take swim lessons everyday for the next 100 years!  Ha!  I am glad he enjoyed himself, but I still don't think I'm ready to commit to this school because of the way they manage their class "schedules."  However, I do think we'll do a few sessions at the rec center over the winter and into the spring.  And of course, I'll continue to work with him at the pool when we go for fun.  If down the road swimming turns out to be the sport that Brennan is really interested in, then we can always come back to this school.

Tyler had a new first experience last week as well - climbing on the play equipment at the Dulles Town Center.  He hadn't really been on any slides before, but he seemed to know just what to do.

At first, he was sliding down feet first on his tummy, similar to how he climbs down the stairs, but then started getting a little more courageous and began climbing face first down the slides.  He was tentative about going down the covered slide at first, but after a few false starts went for it and loved it!