The Adventures of Sean Patrick Kamiano: Floating Lessons.

As people have pointed out to me, these aren't really swim lessons. Sean Patrick is not learning the Australian crawl, or the breast stroke. So we'll call them "Float Lessons".

This is the second week, of float lessons with Sean Patrick. Nicole signed us up a few weeks ago at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, the same place the 1984 Olympics were held.

It's a nice pool and the instructors, excuse me, musical leaders (more on this in a minute) are a little distant and not unfriendly, but I don't think either of them know Sean Patrick's or my name. That's fine I guess, there's probably about 25 kids in the class, and 1/2 hour isn't really enough time to come visit each child and still run a class.

Every Tuesday and Thursday morning at 10:10AM, Sean Patrick and I, donning our finest swim wear, hop in the pool for 1/2 an hour with the instructors/musical leaders. I call the musical leaders because for the most part, they just lead us in different songs that involve movement and splashing in the water. The morning always starts with "Pop Goes the Weasel" and ends with "The Hokey Pokey". In between there are other songs and some exercises designed to start a certain amount of muscle memory for swimming. After all Sean Patrick is only 7 months old, can't really talk or walk, so asking him to swim now might be a stretch. F.Y.I. - the moment he can walk good, I'm strapping ice skates to his feet.

Here's some photos and videos of us splish splashing about.

Here we are first entering the water. You can see the hand rail that leads down a nice sloping ramp so you can ease the kid into the water. No jumping in required.

Along with kicking exercises and "doggy kitty" which is supposed to teach them the arm strokes. We have a couple of exercises that involve using the wall. The first is called, "Tap, One, Two, Three, Turn"

I'm not sure of the purpose of this exercise, except maybe to teach them to grab the wall when they get close. Nothing has really been explained to us, we just sort of go with the flow (in more ways then one).

The second exercise involving the wall is called, "Humpty Dumpty"

This one is easy to figure out. It's all about getting the kid to like jumping into the water and trusting that you'll catch them. Of course, Sean Patrick is a little hesitant and often finds it more fun to slap the asphalt rather than fall into my arms. As the weeks go on, I think he's getting better...

There's also free time where you can grab a "noodle" and a rubber ducky and splash about and do your own thing. This is also the time when the instructor/musical leaders come and check to see what the kid can do. One of them will come over to you and ask the child to swim to them. In Sean Patrick's case, it's more of a handing off from me to them and then back.

Through out most of the proceedings, Sean Patrick appears to be very unimpressed. He has a very good poker face and about the only time there's any emotion from him, it's when he's in the arms of the instructor/musical leader and he wants to come back to me.