Jumping and swimming

Alec made a breakthrough today swimming in the pool. There was another kid who showed up with his father, and they went over to the blue cabinets and put on a snug fitting flotation vest. The kid then started jumping into the pool from the side, and swimming around. I think Alec was intrigued. I put a vest on him, and we went over and started jumping in the pool too. It was the 1 foot mark. Kim took him over to the two foot mark, and he jumped in over and over again. He also held on the side of the pool and practiced kicking with his body floating. This is something I had tried to teach him before, but the vest really made a difference. The best part for me was that he started paddling and kicking, and this swimming with the help of the vest, all on his own. He would jump in, laugh, and then pitch himself forward, holding his breath as his mouth dipped just under the water for a brief second, before he stabilized and could kick and paddle for a bit. It was jilarious watching him jump in. There were two white tiles in the cement at the two foot mark. One had the number 2, the other had a “no diving” symbol. He would go up to them, and cover each with a foot. Then he would bend over and do some pointing at the tiles while he talked to himself about how his feet were aligned or something. Then he would step off the tiles and jump in. Eventually we got him to jump in at the 3 foot mark. I was so happy that other kid was there to spur him on.