Swimming lessons

This past Thursday, Maggie completed a two-week session of swimming lessons. Although there are lots of different organizations in our area that offer lessons, I chose an affiliated SwimAmerica program because of its emphasis on life-saving skills; one of the first things children are taught is to roll over on their backs and call for help. Since Bobby's mom has a pool, Maggie was already pretty comfortable in the water. But her method of "swimming" involved dog-paddling above or below the water, which for Maggie quickly led to fatigue and heavy breathing, which in turn led to her swallowing lots of water. I wanted her to learn the roll-and-call-for-help survival method, and I also wanted her to start learning real swimming strokes.

SwimAmerica's preschool program is divided into 10 different stations, and students receive a sticker whenever they master a station. The first two stations, "splashers" and "bubblers," focus mainly on getting students comfortable in the water - getting in the pool, kicking on the wall, blowing bubbles, and going under water. Station three is "roll over, float, yell for help," and after that, the "real" swimming strokes begin. Here are brief descriptions of each:

• Station 3: Jump into water unassisted, surface and roll to back, yell for help, maintain back float for 30 seconds, prone float and kick, back float and kick.
• Station 4 - "Kickers": Sit/fall/kick back to wall, tread water, kick across pool prone and on back, kick with arms extended
• Station 5 - "Crawlers": Prone movement with arms underwater, breathe to the front, standing up, return to side, backstroke arm movement w/ recovery
• Station 6 - "Frogs": Breaststroke kick and arm movements, modified crawl - 20 feet, backstroke - 20 feet
• Station 7 - "Dolphins": Dolphin kick, dolphin kick with one and then two arm strokes, crawl with out-of-water arm recovery, breaststroke - 20 feet
• Station 8: "Starfish": Crawl with out-of-water recovery, crawl with side breathing, backstroke - 50 feet, breaststroke - 50 feet, butterfly - 20 feet, two arms
• Station 9 - "Divers": kneeling dive and standing dive, into five feet of water or more
• Station 10 - "Swimmers": Crawl - 25 yards with breathing and dive, backstroke - 25 yards, breaststroke - 25 yards, butterfly - 50 feet, somersault or shoulder roll in water by wall, streamline on push off of wall

Maggie's certificate

In eight lessons, Maggie earned nine out of the 10 stickers. She was able to do several of the station 10 requirements, including the flips, but she petered out toward the end and was unable to swim the full distances in all but backstroke. One of the things I was most proud of (and I got it on video, so one of these days I'll post it) was that when she was swimming the length of the pool and got tired, she automatically rolled onto her back and floated. That's when her teacher asked, "Are you not going to make it?" and Maggie nodded no. I'm so glad that after just two weeks, she knows the major swim strokes, she knows how to dive, and - most importantly - she knows what to do when she gets tired in the water.

Floating

Butterfly

First day learning to dive

First standing dive

Diving in the deep end

Jumping just for fun!

As this last picture, shows, Maggie loved her swimming lessons! And other than the whole life-saving aspect, this is maybe the best part for me - she has found a healthy activity that she's good at and really enjoys. The director of the program said she was a joy from day one and hopes we'll "keep her in the water." There's one remaining summer session which we're going to skip, but they offer lessons throughout the school year (two evenings per week), so we're looking at doing that in order to keep Maggie learning and swimming.