Swimming Lessons...

About 23 years ago I took Survival Swimming lessons from a lady named Pam. I have quite a few memories of those lessons, even though I was just a little kid (probably 3 or 4 years old when I started).

They were private swimming lessons... no one else in the pool but one student and Pam. She wore a diving fin on one foot (which she reminded you to look at whenever you were swimming). She wore a wet suite and a sun visor. The lessons only lasted 10 minutes, but the last minute was spent diving for dive rings. Beginning/young swimmers would dip their face in the water, eyes open, and pick a ring off a step. As you got older/more advanced, the rings moved down to deeper steps, then the floor of the shallow end, and eventually, you got to dive off the diving board to fish them out of the deep end. You were rewarded with a little red smiley face stamp at the end of your 10 minute lesson.

The final hoorah of the course was riding your bike (in my case it was a Big Wheel) into the pool fully clothed... in snow gear. Coat, hat, mittens, boots, etc. They teach you to abandon your bike and swim to the surface. I remember feeling such a sense of accomplishment after riding my big wheel into the water... I was so cool!

Fast forward 20+ years and I have a toddler that LOVES water. She has no fear. Last summer she loved going to the pool but she was barely crawling so keeping her safe was pretty easy. But now that she is a fast moving toddler things are different! A few weeks ago we went to the park to feed the ducks. She wanted to get in the pond, and even made a few attempts (she got all all fours and started backing herself up, much like she would do to go down the steps if there wasn't a railing).

My cousin and I had talked about wanting to put our girls into the survival swimming course and one day Heather called to tell me she got the lady's information from a friend who's kids had recently taken it! So, we got on the waiting list and waited. And waited.

Last week we finally got the call that we would be starting this week. I've been so excited for this! It was all I could talk about all weekend. I'm sure Tyler was sick of me explaining their method and how it all works. Turns out everything is the same! Same instructor (she even remembered me), wet suite, "flipper", smiley stamp, etc.

It went pretty well. Of course she cried. It was heartbreaking, but really... I need her to learn these skills since she LOVES water so much. And since the lessons are only 10 minutes I can handle it.

I'll post a few videos soon... but I think I'll wait until her 3rd or 4th lesson (hopefully by then the video won't be full of sporadic wails!).