I've been wanting to write a quick post about swimming for a while now. We took the girls to a swimming class when they were 5 months old. I wanted to get them into the water as early as possible so they wouldn't be those "scared of the water" kids.
Swimming class for babies is a bit of a joke, to be perfectly honest. It's basically 20-30 minutes of pulling them around in the water singing songs. While it was rather expensive for what it was, it was a great opportunity to allow the girls to explore the water.
But, if you have access to a pool, you can sing songs in the water for free! The
Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab Hospital in Toronto has a Little Fish swim program. For $3 ($30/10 sessions), you can take your young child or baby into the pool for free swim (no lessons). They have several sessions each day so it's very convenient for all schedules. This is what I was planning on doing until I found out that my brother's condo building has a pool. My brother, Rob, and I took the girls for a swim at his condo pool for the first time today.
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| Ready to swim! |
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| Rob and the girls |
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| Mommy and her girls |
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| Wrapped up post-swim |
I've done several other types of classes on my own with the girls. It always works out fairly well. Swimming class is definitely not something that you want to do alone with twins (nor would most places allow you to do it alone). When Jenn and I were taking the girls together, it was quite the production to get the girls and ourselves changed before swim and then showered and changed after the lesson.
I'm glad that the girls are getting into the water at an early age, especially since my family spends some time at the cottage (which is on a lake) in the summer!
I agree about swimming lessons being a joke. We did them with Erik when he was a baby but the second session was so lame that we decided not to do it again until he was older. We took him to the public swim instead. With Ian, I think we did one session of lessons to introduce him to the water and then we didn't do it again until now (he's 2.5). Even now, it's a bit of a joke, but he wanted to do it because Erik was. By the time Erik was 3.5, they were worth it because he actually learned something, and now (just turned 5) he's starting to swim on his own.
ReplyDeleteDo you know if Holland Bloorview is salt water or chlorine? I love the place we take The Bean because it's salt water and it's nice a warm! The change rooms are a little lacking, but since it's only a three minute drive away we don't worry about showering. Bloorview isn't very far from us either though, maybe we should check it out...
ReplyDelete@Shannon- Good to know! No lessons until they're at least 3 :)
ReplyDelete@Allison- I want to say that it's salt water but I'm not 100% sure. I prefer salt water as well, which is why we did their "lessons" at the JCC.
We're starting lessons this weekend! They're pretty pricey - esp since we've already BEEN in the Y pool! - but I'll never dunk them without someone telling me to! :)
ReplyDelete@Emily- We learned how to dunk them at our class. We put them into the water up to their shoulders, counted down from 3 and then blew air in the eyes so that they would shut them. Then we quickly dunked them under. They both took it really well! No tears at all!
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