We had a great first two weeks before we left town for the first time, and it all fell apart from there. Too many trips and distractions. Oh well. Such is life. We did have a great (if short) run of it and a fabulous hike where we worked on art projects with oil pastels. And, then we managed to do one other thing regularly, if only one, this summer: SWIM!
This year Mia participated in our community's swim team. She had practice for an hour every morning and participated in several swim meets -- including one that was FREEZING. She made amazing progress with her form and skill. I was very proud of her sticking with something that was not always easy and working hard to improve. She is becoming a good swimmer. Her favorite strokes are the backstroke and the fly.
I also decided that this was the year for the other girls to take lessons. Maggie has had a lot of fears, but has realized that all her friends know how to swim and has started to feel self-conscious about wearing her life jacket at the pool. I have held off doing lessons with her the last few years as it has been a waste of money to pay for swimming lessons for a child who will NOT put her face in the water. But, I felt strongly that swimming was an area where I was just going to have to really push her to face and overcome her fear. She did three weeks of swimming lessons this summer: one in Utah and two during the mornings of the weeks we were home in Boise. These two weeks of lessons were a BIG part of why our "mom school" was a bust. But, in the end, I felt like the swimming was the better choice this year.
It took a whole week of lessons for Maggie to fully submerge her head under water. A whole week! Week two involved a teacher who REALLY pushed Maggie. She sort of hated it. I had to bribe her with a coveted toy to get her to stick with it, and I had to deal with some tears. But, she made it through, almost able to swim. Week three is when she decided she was going to revolt. She was screaming mad at me for two full days just for signing her up for more lessons. And, I was not sure bribery alone would cut it. For the first time in my parenting I heard myself telling my daughter who was refusing to do something I wanted, "You are going to do it. And, you will thank me later for making you!" I could not believe my ears! But, I knew it was true. Maggie needed to be able to swim, both for her own safety and so that she could confidently participate in a host of other activities throughout her life. As an inadequate swimmer myself, I knew that she would be better off learning to swim well at a young age than giving in to her fears.
The first two days were rough, but I am SO grateful to my fabulous friend Cathy Taylor who taught Maggie and Elsie Jane this third week. They LOVED swimming with Cathy. By the end of week three, Maggie was happily and willingly jumping off the diving board into twelve feet deep water and swimming the length of the pool. It was such a transformation from week one that I was shocked.
Elsie Jane also did well in her two weeks and is VERY confident now and almost able to swim completely independently.
We also loved living a couple blocks from the community pools. It was a great distraction in the late afternoons when everyone is a little stir crazy and needing something to do. Several times a week, we would just load up and ride our bikes over or walk to the pool. So much more convenient than having to load up in the car, and if we stayed for only a little while it wasn't a big deal either because it was free and easy to go.
Much of our summer ended up being focused on swimming, but I am so glad. Now, we have to get back to the pool during the cooler months so the girls do not forget all they have learned and can just keep swimming...
1 comment:
We love having a community pool too! It's so fun to just go for an hour or two right at the end of the day when the kids are crazy.
I'm loving all your blog updates!
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