Float or Drown?

 If there was a choice between floating and drowning, Gavin just might choose downing simply because he is so stubborn and refuses to float! Just like we did with Dallin a few years ago, we started Gavin with Ms. Gail for swim safety lessons. Ms Gail is a brilliant teacher. She can accomplish what I wish I could when I was co-teaching middle school. She has the right amount of firmness and the right amount of love. When I co-taught, either one teacher was the disciplinarian and the other was the fun teacher or vice versus. There was only one teacher that I taught with that we could find the right balance together. Ms. Gail has that balance. She can push Dallin like no one else and keep his focus. She is hard on him and yet he loves her.

Gavin is a whole different type of kid. He spent the first two lessons crying the whole time for me until on the third I got in the water with him. I knew he wasn't scared of water he just was uncomfortable being away from me. From then on he was fine having a lesson by himself.

Gavin got the reward for being the most stubborn kid Ms. Gail has ever taught. He hated to roll over because he was focused on getting the toy to the "castle" and didn't want anything to get in his way even if it was breathing! Every time Ms. Gail made him roll over, he would cry like it was the end of the world. Another teacher that subbed for Ms. Gail a few times would stop pushing Gavin as much and treat him very gently. Ms. Gail though recognized that Gavin could do everything she was asking, he just didn't want to. Again, she could push him like no one else. At the beginning of our session, I thought there was no way Gavin was going to pass his swim test in the same amount of time as Dallin and that I would have to sign him up again and that wasn't possible with our move. Because of Ms. Gail though, he did it and surprised us all!

The swim cap protects Gavin's hair and keeps it out of his face. He looks so cute in it!

Gavin loved to chase Ms. Gail around the pool with the noodle.

In this video, you will see how stubborn Gavin can be. He turns around in circles looking for something to grab onto before he finally chooses to float. At one point in another lesson, Ms Gail had all her helpers get out of the water, pulled the castle out of the water, so that Gavin was the only one in the water and was forced to either float on his back or drown. Thank goodness he chose to float!

Swim test: On the swim test day, Gavin came fully dressed including shoes. He had to show Ms. Gail that if he fell in the water, he could float on his back until he reached the side and could climb out. I didn't catch everything on the video, but Ms. Gail is pretty rough on the kids. While they are floating, she will come by and toss them in the water again. It shocked Gavin, but he came up floating again (very angrily!).

In this video, Ms. Gail asks him four times (I didn't include all four times on the video) to jump in the water, float on his back to breath, then swim to the castle.  At first I thought Gavin didn't understand the instructions or that he had selective hearing. Really, I think he just wanted to do things his way.

We are so proud of Gavin and hope that if there is ever an accident, he will remember what he was taught and choose to float!