This year I was glad for my convictions. Scheduling lessons for my 3 older kids was a PAIN. Because the pool got out this year's schedule very late (like 4 days before lessons were starting), they canceled several classes that didn't fill up. That meant that the only classes in the levels for my kids required us to be at the pool twice a day.
This was Gunnar's first year for lessons. Originally I had him signed up for a Mommy & Me class. It was going to be during the time immediately following Maggie's lesson, which meant a full hour at the pool in the morning. However, after watching the one-student beginner I class that was being held during Maggie's time slot, I knew that Gunnar could handle it--and that the teacher-to-student ratio would be great. So, Gunnar joined that class the second day and eventually just had 2 classmates and 2 teachers. His class was mostly about getting comfortable moving through the water and some beginning skills. Gunnar has always had a healthy respect for water that keeps him from being too adventurous in the pool. I'm glad. I know that he won't do anything crazy when I'm not looking, whether we're poolside or at a beach. And now he's confident enough to play in the shallow end (where he can easily touch) without clinging too me the whole time. That's Holly's job.
Here's Gunnar with one of his teachers, named Finn. Adah, thinking it was Fin, said, "That's a good name for a swimming teacher."
Gunnar, playing catch with his other teacher, Susie
Maggie was in the beginning II class. Maggie would be a great little swimmer if she could just figure out how to blow those nose bubbles! While she loves swimming in theory, she's never really liked getting her face wet. This year she's finally really comfortable doing that, but she always goes under while plugging her nose. It doesn't really advance her skills much. Still, she did much better this year.
Our pool always has "life jacket day" once during a 2-week session. Living in a place with so many water recreation opportunities, I'm glad that they do this. Kids can bring their own life jackets or use the pools' so that they can be properly fit and get some practice maneuvering while wearing one. Maggie's the one on the far right, below.
Diving board action on life jacket day
On non-life jacket day, she wasn't so confident and pretty much jumped right on top of her poor teacher!
After morning lessons with Gunnar and Maggie, we were back at the pool at 5:00 for Adah's intermediate class. Again, good thing for my convictions. It was a pain trucking everyone back and forth twice a day. But, so worth it.
Adah is a confident little swimmer, if not the most technically elegant. She can get from one place to the other pretty well and safely, but is still mastering all the techniques of proper stroke and breathing. She loves being in the deep end and going off the diving board.
She's also still mastering diving. Ouch!
As I said, it was a chilly June. We had a weather mix during this year's swimming lessons. No rain. Mostly sun. But at least one day, here's what the spectators wore:
Lucky for the swimmers, the water temp at the local pool was usually in the 80s. Nice & toasty. Also lucky for us, we were in the summer's first session of swimming lessons. After that, our struggling little pool began to have some mechanical problems with the filtration and had to shut down for days at a time, finally closing down for the final weeks of summer. It was a huge bummer, especially for many of our friends whose lessons this summer were quite abbreviated. I'm glad my kiddos got their time in to build up those skills.
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