Swim Lessons

I signed the kids up for two sessions of swim lessons at the Stansbury Park pool. I wanted them to be safe in water. Each session was two weeks long, Monday- Friday at 11, and each class was 45 minutes long. In the first session, Locke was in level two and learned all the requirements and moved to level three for the second session.

Link was a little afraid to be in the big pool because he is short, so he just hung onto the side and was nervous about doing things in his class for the first session. He had to retake his level. I took him to the pool between sessions and we practiced some of the things he was learning. I had him wear goggles and he realized it was something he could do. So the next session he was at the top of his class and was learning things really fast and passed his level with flying colors.

Remi was in level 0 and in the baby pool. Mostly they just played with toys. The teachers didn’t really work with them that much. Remi was actually too young for the class because it was for ages 3-5 and she was only two, but a new girl in the office put her in the class. She did get more comfortable in the water without floatys, so that was good. She was putting her head under water a little by the end of the second session.

The biggest problem the boys had was that the big pool was cold. They laid on the hot concrete edges in-between their turns to practice. Parents (or grandparents) weren’t allowed in the pool area, so Link was nervous and wanted me to stay for the first few classes. By the second sessions of their classes all three of them would eagerly go to their classes without me.

Remi’s teachers were nice and she was a favorite. She would play with them and talk to them. All the teachers were teenagers.

The first session, all the kids, including the little ones, jumped off the diving board with life jackets. A teacher helped the little ones, and Remi was brave and did it every time. Pretty soon though the teacher started dropping her in or giving her a little push, and Remi was done and didn’t want to do it anymore. She didn’t like going under water. I think that was what they wanted the kids to get used to.

They teacher held onto Link like he was one of the little ones because he is small, but after a while he started jumping in all by himself.

Locke did great. He was cautious at first but soon was jumping off fine and even took off his life jacket. The teachers were there to help if needed. One time his goggles came off, water went up his nose, and he was struggling, but the teachers helped him.

The second session they didn’t have time for the diving board. The weather was bad for four days out of the session. One day was so smoky from all the fires in the West that it was hard to breathe, so we didn’t go that day either. But the second session didn’t have as many kids in it so Link and Locke got a lot of one on one attention. There were two kids in Locke’s class and three in Link’s.

Locke doing the backstroke across the pool. He picked up swimming really fast, but he was a little nervous about being in the deeper water for his class. I think that was why he was reluctant to swim all the way across all by himself and needed to take the class again.

The second session Link is doing great learning the back stroke.

After class the kids liked to warm up and dry off on the hot sidewalk. Afterwards we would go to the library there or get some 2 dollar snow cones, or go swim in the lake. One day we rented a paddle board for 15 dollars an hour and had a ball paddling with all of us on it all over the lake. It was so stable that the kids could jump off and climb back on without it tipping. I could easily paddle standing up or sitting down. It was a lot of fun.