Music and Swimming Lessons

There are some classes that are good for children.  There are others that are atrocious.  We have subjected Matthew to both.

Let's start with the stupid one.  We enrolled Matthew in swimming lessons in order to help him get used to the water, for socialization, and for some good old fashioned family fun.  We quickly learned there are more fun ways to spend time in water than this class.  The class was from 8:00-8:45 on Saturday mornings at the park district center.  We thought it would be good time talking with other parents and learning some techniques or fun things to do with our babies.  Nothing serious, but some guidance on what to do would have been nice.  Instead, we had an 18 year old teacher who wanted nothing to do with the class except the $7.15/hr paycheck.  With all the excitement of a soccer game, we went through the motions of droning "If You're Happy and You Know It" and other similar ditties.  After exactly 15 minutes--apparently, teacher was at risk of developing a personality were she to assert effort for 16 minutes--we were told we had "free time."  No fun games.  No teaching.  No socializing, other than E and I following parents and their kids around in the pool asking for their addresses.  Nothing.  And did I mention that one time it was 7:59 and a parent was ready to enter the pool room, when another instructor sternly pointed out that there were 30 more seconds before we could enter?  We chose to skip the final three lessons.  There were only five total.

Nonetheless, here are a couple pics:

And now, on to Matthew's third love: music class.  His first two loves are his mother and claymation.  The video explain it all but I will give you some background info.  The teacher has two young kids and has been playing the violin since she was three years old.  Ergo, she does things like "engage the children," "exude passion," and "gives a damn."  Almost as much as Matthew:

The class is 45 minutes and is complete with singing and socializing that the instructor helps facilitate so it's not awkward.  Last week, I exchanged numbers with another couple.  The woman works at Northwestern, the man works in sports and they were both polite enough not to call me creepy.  Yey.