Our Little Swimmer

Future military guy?? :)

Two weeks ago our relentless, effervescent, and belovedly strong-willed M set out on a swimming adventure. At the time, he refused to put his face or head in the water and his swimming skills were relatively nonexistent. I could do nothing to persuade him to put his head under and he insisted on only wearing his Puddle Jumpers.

M's swimming blitz consisted of 8 half-hour private lessons held in someone's backyard pool. An area homeschooling family (with 11 children) started their own business years ago, renting out various backyard pools and teaching children the basics of swimming. What I loved most about this program was its early emphasis on communicating swimming safety. M took a "safe swimmer test" at the end of his lessons with clothes on to see if he could operate in the water in the event of an emergency--he passed! Pretty cool!

He can now float on his tummy and back, do the elementary backstroke (with direction), reach his arms in freestyle fashion, flip onto his back to rest if he's too tired, and retrieve items at the bottom of the pool. Amazing! To think my (very conservative) hope through all of this was that maybe they could get him to put his head underwater! He had that accomplished by day 1! It was then that I knew this program was a good thing...

I think what I loved most about the program, though, was watching his confidence and determination grow with each lesson. His teacher was so proud of his hard work and we were too! What a champ! :) I really wish I could download video onto here, but for some reason Blogger blocks it. Alas, you'll just have to enjoy the pics.