YMCA Session

I am a huge fan of the Southwest YMCA that Sherman and the boys belong to. Ryan and Mason have attended 2 sessions taking various classes and the confidence level they have developed is impressive. The teacher's are wonderful and the programs promote a healthy life style, confidence, being a team player and gross motor development.

Mason had classes in soccer, flag football, basketball, swimming and next session will continue with flag football, soccer, swimming and we added track.

The teacher commented on Mason's swimming 'report card', "Mason is doing a great job getting his face wet. He still needs to work on his confidence at getting his feet off the bottom of the pool without my help." Under "Participates in discussions and activities that promote self-confidence" - Very Confident!

Considering Mason whimpered the first swim lesson, he is doing great. Along with Sherman swimming with him on Saturdays when Ryan is having a lesson, once in a while Mason and I will swim during the week so he's pretty comfortable in the water; that's the first step. Now if we can just need to have him feel confident putting his face in the water while stroking and floating on his back. After that, he'll learn to swim like a fish.

Ryan's swim instructor reported "Keep up the good work. Improving from last session! Work on getting face & head under water. Good job!" His "Participates in discussions and activities that promote self-confidence score" was "somewhat timid" but he makes up for it with how much he enjoys swimming. Ryan is definitely more comfortable being in a pool; he just needs to be able to relax more in the water and know water is his friend. With Ryan's school schedule it's hard to find free time to swim with him. Maybe next session we'll try to work in swimming one day after school.

I spoke with Ms. Jean (the children's athletic director) and she commented that Ryan is coming along at basketball and she see's an improvement in his confidence level. He has learned to dribble and is starting to understand the game itself. The Y does not have basketball next session so Ryan said he would like to sign up for soccer. We also signed him up for Sports of All Sorts to allow him to have a taste of a variety of sports.

The boys enjoy going to the Y and even love to dance to the Village People, YMCA song!