She did it!

I kind of got fed up with Mika's fear of water touching her face Tuesday and that started a change reaction of things that got her over the hump with her fear. After her teacher commenting, yet again, about getting her goggles I finally took her to Target to buy some. I explained to Mika that I didn't want to buy her goggles because I didn't think she would use them. I expected her to hate how they feel on her face and not want to wear them. I also suspected that she would still refuse to put her face in the water even with the goggles protecting her eyes. She promised me that she would use them so I spent the money on bought them.

The very next class, she refused to put her face in the water, to even see if the goggles would work. Well, I was NOT happy about that. So, I threatened to pull her out of class if she wasn't going to learn and to make her work off the cost of the goggles. She was NOT happy about that. Scott talked to her and she promised him she would do a bob to her eyebrows. Today was the day she had to do that.

This morning before leaving for class, I looked up and called another pool that does swimming instruction and talked to them about how they would handle her fear. They work with the kids to get them through the fears quickly. They said they'd have her swimming, face in water, within a month at the longest. I explained to Mika what they told me about how they do it and she wasn't thrilled about that.

So, we went to the Y. She did her required 1 bob. After class, they have free swim. During free swim I told her I would pay her a quarter for every bob she did. Guess what? She did 7 more bobs, some of them were very good with her entire head under water. She now knows that she can do it and is looking forward to showing her teacher (she was absent today) next week.

Her teacher and a couple of the lifeguards and I all agree, she would be able to actually swim if she'd just get over the whole face in the water thing. She's got the kick and arm strokes down good. We explained that to her; that she CAN swim IF she wanted to. Hopefully, she'll move along and progress quickly now that she knows she can get her face wet.

On a side note, Sammy found out today he can swim underwater. He doesn't get far or go fast but he does swim. Oh, and he loves putting his face underwater with his goggles.