Swim Lessons: The Finale

The kids finished swim lessons today, and they have done really well this summer. Madison is diving (along with swimming well), and Luke can jump off the diving board and swim to the side. I can't believe the progress they have both made. It's been so great to watch over the summer. The kids have had lessons Monday-Friday, 45 minutes each. Madison's class had a total of six kids, if they were all there! Luke's class had closer to 10 kids, but again, they were rarely all there. Today, the last day, both classes had just two kids each, my kids and another kid :)

Madison, the Diver

I don't think adults remember the coordination that comes with learning how to dive until we watch a kid try to learn that same coordination. I watched A LOT of belly flops before we got to this :)

She loves diving, and I hope that wherever we move next, we have good access to a pool. I might have created little fish with the swimming we have here!

Luke LOVED his class. He was the youngest in his class, and he was their biggest daredevil. Luke was always the first one willing to do anything, and he begged from Day 1 to go off the diving board. They spent this last week on the diving board and on the water slide (it's pretty tall...about two stories tall).

Luke (and Madison) loved their swim instructors. These two girls taught the lessons last year too, and Luke would talk about "swimming with Miss Sonny" everyday.

This is the intro class, so they have kids afraid to even get in the water. Miss Ashley is standing a few feet from the ladder, and the goal of this section is to get the kids to push off the ladder and swim to her underwater.

Luke loves to swim underwater. His biggest challenge is that when he comes up for air, he forgets to breathe! He does come up, look around, and goes back underwater. We always laugh because he has to come right back up for an actual breath. For a three-year-old, he's doing VERY well!

These swim lessons are really fantastic. The classes are SO small, the instructors are Red Cross certified, so it's a very legit class. They are great with the kids, and for a whopping $21, you can't beat it! 45 minutes a day, five days a week in two week segments=priceless!!!

We will continue with swim lessons next summer up until we move. We hope to be here long enough for Madison to do the last level, Level 4. There, they work on the breaststroke and the butterfly (worked on freestyle and backstroke in Level 3). For Luke, they said he would be ready for Level 3 next summer right away, but I might restart him just to get his memory working about swimming...we'll see.

I'll tell you what...while I have really enjoyed the kids' lessons each day, Alex and I will NOT miss sitting out at the pool for two hours each morning roasting. It's been up well over 100 just about every morning, and man, it's been hot and tiresome (and very humid the last week). I've been the only mom there for the two sessions this time around; no one else had kids in both classes. I've been sharing that misery with Madison's preschool teacher, as she's been assigned there with the preschool kids who are there for lessons each day. Carol (her teacher) and I were very excited to finish the lessons!