For a month now, I’ve been taking the girls T-F to swim lessons. It’s been freezing somedays and burning others. The girls look forward to it everyday. Most days, Mom and Dad have joined me for this ritual.
Dad brings his long telephoto. Sometimes, I haven’t even bothered to bring a camera because I don’t think I can compete. Today, we were about to head to Sequim from lessons, so I already had my camera. I took a couple of shots.
Swim lessons have been really fun. Somedays, I biked us with the trailer or even the new tandem. It was quite a haul up hill from our house. The downsides are I haven’t been swimming at all. This trumps our usual weekly swim excursion. I am not allowed in the pool. It also defines the day and means we don’t do much else. My Dad’s vision of exploring Seattle with us has not manifested itself. We have adventured on weekends mostly. Thus the Sequim visit.
For the girls, I’ve seen small and big changes.
Laura jumped a class. She left Beginning 1. She had no problem being in the water. Mostly, she used swim lessons as an opportunity to explore deep sea diving. She’d put her goggles on and bob down below the wall.
She’s getting closer to being comfortable swimming on her own (my main goal for Sara). She had some problems listening to the teacher…she was always below water. She did diving day once (on Fridays) and we 3 times. Since then, both kids refrained.
Sara gained more confidence and comfort. She was also the social butterfly. Where Laura dunked, Sara talked and schmoozed. She made a friend in every class. Sara has not been that happy about putting her head in the water. She now copies her sister and dunks her head with and without goggles.
That’s huge for Sara. Even in Maui with fish nibbling her toes, she didn’t put her face in the water. Now it’s no problem. She also eased into swimming on her back, becoming more comfortable and relaxed by the end. She has taken several strokes by herself. This was my ultimate goal, to get her to swim on her own. She wanted to do it so bad when we went swimming on our own. I can’t wait to see how she does on her own now.
It’s like I’ve bought a shiny, new toy. I want to see how my new improved swimmers do on their own. I think we might continue individual swim lessons into the school year.