I’ve kind of taken an “I don’t really care” attitude regarding swimming lessons. I DO care that the boys take them. I feel very strongly that they need to learn how to swim and be confident in the water. What I DON’T care about is a high school student’s opinion about how well my 5 year old can swim! I might have gotten a little ticked when they didn’t pass Tommy because he needed to work more on his front crawl – um, that’s what you were supposed to teach him and he’s 5! The levels don’t even start counting until he is 6! I’m afraid Momma Bear set in and I may have ranted. Thankfully, my boys don’t really care about the passing so much and their dad is an excellent swimmer who can fill in any gaps to their swim lesson education.
The boys love swimming lessons, no matter what I think about the instructors. Rusty passed Level 2 this year.
Bobby may have been all smiles in this picture, but that is only because he isn’t being forced to do a back float! He likes the water least of the boys. He doesn’t mind standing in the water, but he has NO interest in that floating business.
Tommy has no problem floating.
Billy was in Level 4. It is a pretty hard class that involves some more difficult strokes. It was only his first time taking the class and they’d like him to do it again. I’m okay with repeating Level 4 – that’s completely acceptable.
This picture shows a bit of Bobby’s floating resistance! Kevin and I split the swimming class responsibilities this time. Bobby was more comfortable in the water by the last class, but still not a fan of floating!
We planned swimming lessons to be at the same time as our friends and Tommy got to be in class with his friend Mason. They certainly knew how to kick those legs!
I chose the pool I did for the swim lessons because all 5 boys could be in class at the same time. Ricky didn’t do a swimming class, instead he took a Merit Badge class where he earned 4 merit badges over the 4 weeks. I’m not sure which badges he earned – life saving, swimming, medicine, and something else similar to that – but one was much more hard earned than the others. He had to dive to the bottom of the pool and retrieve a brick. Ricky is a lightweight and, while he swims well, he’s not a strong swimmer. I watched him try for that brick and try for that brick to no avail. Finally, the last day, his last dive, Ricky got that brick! I was so excited for him! He got up to break the surface of the water for a breath of air and then the brick started pulling him back under … but Ricky wasn’t about to let go. The instructor reached out and pulled him up, but it was good enough to earn that badge! I was a proud Momma in that moment!
And there you go.