Not quite a fish (yet)
A couple of months back, Preston started swimming lessons.
The reasons were aplenty:
1) He loves the water.
2) Water safety! He has a tendency to 不知天高地厚 (roughly translated to mean "be unaware of danger") and it's important he knows some basic survival skills in water.
3) We are heading to Australia later this year and will be at the beach/pool a lot.
4) Build up his lungs as he has sensitive airways.
I initially wanted to form a private swim class with my SIL & her boys but she declined as she felt her kids were too young. So I relied on reviews & Google to suss out a few swim schools/coaches.
There were some criteria that must be met -- location of public pool (obviously Sengkang), class timing, fees & max number of students per class. In the end, I settled on Singapore Swimming Academy and Preston was placed in the Beginner class with Coach Lawrence Ang.
The swim cap & goggles are provided by the school. This makes it easier for the coaches to identify the kids in their charge.
At his 1st lesson:
And his coaches (sometimes there was an assistant around) are great! I sit under the shade and observe his weekly lessons so I can keep tabs on things. His coaches are patient and they don't force the kids to do stuff they aren't ready for. For example, Preston was kind of apprehensive about putting his entire head underwater to blow bubbles. So Coach Ang took it slow with him and on his 3rd lesson, he finally did it and Preston was so gleeful!
Subsequent lessons:
2 weeks ago...
You can see some progress as Preston gets strapped on with more (and different floats).
At this point, Preston is definitely still unable to swim. However, his water confidence level has increased a lot. He jumps straight into the learner pool (around 1m deep) whenever it's time for class. He's learning the breaststroke at the moment but for now, he still needs to work on perfecting his kick so that he can move well in water.
Can't wait for him to move onto the next stage -- coordinating his arms & legs while holding his breath underwater. Now, that will definitely be interesting!