Little Swimmer

Noey and I went for our first swimming class on Thurs at Marsden’s at Turf City.

After hearing about PF and Kristy’s less than satisfactory experience at the Holland Road branch, I was in 2 minds whether to go for the class. My hesitation was also brought on by the fact that the class was at 9am and I wasn’t sure my body was ready for the shock of getting in the water that early in the morning. But since I’d signed up (and they had me on the list — more on that later on), we figured that I might as well just bring him along and see how he takes to it.

Noey and Mummy with the pool in the background. As you can see, Noey is much more interested in the roof. Possibly because of the soft toys they had hanging from it.

As it turned out, while it was supposed to be a class for 6, everyone else didn’t turn up so Noey got a private class all to himself. Woo hoo! Good value for $25, I must say. And this boy of mine has definitely inherited my class attending genes cos he was all smiles the whole time he was in the water. It helps that he just loves the pool. The best part was the fact that the pool was heated. AWESOME. The water was a nice bath temperature and I was all too happy not to be shivering in the pool so soon after getting out of bed.

This was a water familiarisation class with the aim of getting babies confident in the water, so in the half an hour the instructor brought us through a series of activities with songs and props to get Noey kicking away. We played with a big floating mat (Noey of course refused to lie down) which was later folded into a tunnel for him to crawl through, fiddled with watering cans and drizzled water on our heads, and splashed around plastic balls. Noey “jumped” into the water from the platform, slided down a slide into the pool, and after a while, even got to “swim” with his head under the water for a couple of short lengths between the instructor and me. I was a little worried when the instructor suggested doing this (after some counting to cue him) but the little guy took it really well only looking slightly shocked when he resurfaced. He didn’t choke and only spluttered briefly on the 3rd try.

Half an hour was over in a flash. And now I’m in a quandary over whether to continue because he seemed to really enjoy it. A semester of 12 weeks is a really long commitment and I’m not sure I’m up to it. Plus Thurs is also Noey’s Kindermusik day and he’ll be all class-ed out. My poor overscheduled baby. Since Noey appears to be comfortable in the water, I’m thinking that it might be more useful to expose him to more water play at our pool downstairs instead. However, I did say I’ll be back this week for the second lesson and we’ll see after that.

So what I liked: The heated pool, the varied activities, teaching Noey to be unafraid of getting his head underwater, and probably, when he gets some classmates, the socialisation.

What I didn’t like: The disorganised and poor admin.

Getting Noey into this class was more hassle than I had anticipated. I’d e-mailed them some months ago when Noey was about 6 months old, explaining his age and giving his birthdate, enquiring about availability of classes at both Holland Road and Turf City in subsequent terms (I didn’t intend to start Noey till he reached 9 months). They e-mailed me back later saying that the classes were full and I was put on a waiting list at their Turf City Branch. This was fine with me since I’d expected it. What I did not expect was to be called months later to be told that they had a slot available for Noey… with other 4-5 year olds. Huh? I said he was 6 months old, not 6 years! When I clarified this, they informed me of the Thurs class and I agreed to go for a trial session.

And then! On Mon I decided to call to check the time of the class again and was told he was not on the list. Huh?? They checked his birthdate and still, nope, no Noey. It was only after I gave them my name for them to call me back that they realised that they had MY name down as the child and the wrong birthdate. Geez. They had a term break but surely that is not an excuse for sloppiness.

Anyway. Let’s see how things go this Thursday!