Nicholas Now Loves it

It took two days, but Nicholas is now swimming with his class. The first day he stood right at the edge (it is a zero depth pool) and would run as fast as the wind if one of his teachers would try to come near him so the first day they let him be. Yesterday, they decided to gently push the issue and took him by the hand and walked him in. He did not fight them but there were tears in his eyes. Once they got him in and he realized that he could touch he did fine but kept ahold of his teachers hand and she patiently followed him with his death grip the rest of swim lessons. Today he was so excited to go and when they blew the whistle to start he ran right over and jumped in. That's right the kids jumped in and participated fully with his class. I was so proud of him, and thankful for his patient teacher who helped him realize that it was okay.
We were not so lucky with Addison as after Monday when they were done testing the kids to see their abilities to place them in classes, he ended up with a teacher that I had issues with and complained against two years ago. Well, the kids has not changed his little/horrible ways. In the group Addison was tested for they work on teaching them to hold their breathe under water for ten seconds and to do the doggy paddle. This teacher's idea of getting them to keep their head under water for ten seconds was to hold it there! I was ticked along with several other parents as out of the four kids in the class only one was still in the pool 15 minutes after they had started. Addison refused to get back in yesterday and that really made me mad too. Not at Addison, but this teacher who had caused fear in my child. Well, the City Director was there today and there were several complaints about this teacher not only from our time slot but others and he was termintated, but the damage was done. It took us over half the lesson time today to convince Addison back in the pool and then he would not put his face in the water at all. So, sad! I hope that these new teachers he has will have the patience and understanding and that eventually he will put his face in the water again and enjoy it as he told me that he did not want to go back anymore.