He is perfectly confident in the water - he'll jump in, go underwater, swim on his back, go down water slides etc without any problem at all. If he doesn't attempt to do any particular stroke, he can swim some way (unaided) on his front and further on his back, but watching his attempt to do the breaststroke is a painful experience. It's all very well saying that it's the survival stroke, but if you can't swim it, it's not much cop as a survival tool.
Finally, after being handed the slip of paper from the instructor saying that Jacob would be in Level 2 again this term, I'd had enough. Time to go further afield and stop being seduced by the sheer convenience of swimming lessons just down the road. So, starting yesterday, we had swimming lessons at the aqua park just to the north of York - a five mile drive on the ring road in the rush hour, slightly more expensive lessons, but hopefully a good investment.
My initial impressons are positive - the pool is bigger, they can learn proper water entry and jumping/diving as well as swimming. The floor of the pool is adjustable so it can be raised and lowered to the appropriate level for the classes, the teacher made an initial impresson on Jacob and he was really trying hard to demonstrate his abilities, and most importantly - they don't teach breaststroke until the kids can actually swim.
Sam's lesson was less impressive - they were down by one teacher due to a hospital emergency, so there was just one teacher to try and look after 10 small kids. Watching Sam swim with floats is like watching someone have an epileptic fit. But next week, he'll be in a group of five with a teacher to pay more attention to him, so I'm hopeful he'll be making progress soon.
Fingers crossed.
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