Survival Swim

We are lucky enough to have a pool at our house in Taiwan. But with the pool comes a lot of anxiety for  me. The more mobile Ander became, the higher my anxiety grew. After a lot of research on pool and gate alarms, and even buying the Turtle Alarm (that goes on the child as a bracelet and will set off an alarm should it get wet)- I still didn't feel secure. There is so much room for human error! Then I came across a site that teaches infants and toddlers drowning prevention techniques. Well, there are lots of places that claim to teach but it all goes back to ISR and the research they have done. ISR has literally 40  years of research and they have really honed and crafted the way they teach with the goal not being a beautiful breast stroke, but rather that your child posses the skills to save themselves should they fall in the water. The teachers go through rigorous training and keep up on it yearly. It is an amazing program. I could go on and on about it. If you let me corner you I will! Anyway, I was thrilled to find Dotty who is certified in the Boise area and has been teaching 25+ years. She knows her stuff.

 It was a big commitment to get up and go almost every single day of our vacation for these 15 min lessons with Dotty, but I knew after the very first day that we had made the right choice. If you've seen Ander in action you can imagine where my worries come from. And the kids were mostly good sports about coming along for the ride. They were cute, they had fun encouraging Ander and cheering him on.

 Dotty made Nathan and I feel good by telling us how awesome Ander was doing, how unusually quick he was learning these new skills. Our little guy worked hard during his lessons, but he also seemed to love that he was learning how to move about and help himself in the water.

 Dotty had him floating by the end of the first week. She is amazing.

 Kohen making Pinecone Men to pass the time.

A stick to stick in the water as soon as the lesson is over...

Ander's favorite mid-lesson toy, the gator. He would literally try and swim with the gator in his hand. It was good for him to discover it's tricky to move through the water when your dominate hand is preoccupied.

Love this picture of Ander's stamps for doing "Big Kickers"

This video is one of the latter lessons where they have the children wear clothes -in this case, pajamas and a diaper- to simulate how if an aquatic accident were to occur, chances are they would be in some sort of clothes (the next day he wore jeans, a jacket and shoes, heavy!). What I love about this video though is that you can see that he loves it. She's all dropping him in the water and he is still all smiles. I am just SO grateful we had the opportunity to do these classes and I hope they will continue to benefit Ander for years to come.