Swimming Lessons

Once I got home from my Makeover Day, I had to run round and get Little Prince ready for his swimming lesson. I was pushed for time so I got quite stressed and snappy about it, which always sets Little Prince on edge! When we got there he got even more upset and hyped up as my friend Post Lady and her girls got into the car park just a fraction before we did!! He has to be first!! The lesson didn't go very well, I could see the teacher was getting quite irritated with Little Prince and that he was disrupting the other children's lesson. In the end the teacher seemed to just give up on Little Prince and ignore him and let him just splash about. So I wasn't surprised to get a phone call later that evening from the swimming school principle (and also Little Prince's private swimming teacher who adores him). She said that his teacher had spoken to her after Little Prince's lesson and said that she felt Little Prince wasn't really getting any benefit from the lessons and wanted to know if I felt it was worth him carrying on participating. We discussed various different scenarios (ie him moving back down to the beginners class with his friend Post Lady's daughter or him taking a break from lessons). In the end we decided that it would be better all round if he took a break from group lessons and just carried on having private lessons instead.

Naturally I'm upset about this, but I could see that the group teacher was getting steadily more and more irritated by Little Prince and that he seemed to sense this and it made him feel unsafe and so his behaviour escalated. There would be no point trying to keep him in the class, as the irritation would probably turn to dislike and would probably make Little Prince feel bad about himself. He does really enjoy his private swimming lessons, and it is obvious that his teacher thinks he is wonderful, enthusiastic and always happy :-) But even though I am sad (and sad for Little Prince - who isn't bothered, he's just happy he can have friends round another evening during the week!) I'm not devestated and have accepted that Little Prince does have difficulties and won't be able to do everything that other children can do. But we will still make sure that he participates in things he wants to join in with to the best of his abilities.