I know I’ve been building it up in my head quite a bit. That magical moment when my 6 year old actually *learns to swim* (cue trumpet fanfare). So I had great anticipation at taking him to his *first swim lesson* yesterday.

But, A: He didn’t learn to swim the first day, and
B: It wasn’t even his first swim lesson.

He’d taken lessons with his sister last year, remember, and there was the one time we made it down to the city pool for lessons this summer.

So, technically speaking, he wasn’t a stranger to the water. And it’s interesting when we get technical, because, while I was afraid I’d waited too long to get him up and swimming, he is still only 6. His big brother learned to swim younger than that, and so did his two sisters just above him, but his oldest sister didn’t learn until she was 7 or 8, having started at 5. And let’s not forget that I was 12 before it clicked for me, after many years of a lesson here and a lesson there.

So I stopped worrying about that one. I also noticed that my son isn’t scared of the water, so there’s that. He is very squirrelly, though, and was constantly messing with his goggles and climbing out of the pool. He said he was cold. He didn’t realize that getting in and out of the pool is much colder than just staying in there and warming up.

The lesson itself consisted of a pre-lesson meeting, a demonstration of the 10 levels of USA Learn to Swim, and practicing whatever level skills the kids were during the lesson part. My son spent most of his lesson on level 1, 10 bobs.

He held his breath, rather than blew bubbles. He didn’t dunk his head enough. He climbed out of the pool on a pole while taking turns with the teacher.

Finally, the class progressed to level 2, front and back float. My son tried to sit up while learning the back float. He swears he wasn’t scared.

This could take longer than I’d hoped.