Swimming Lessons

I know I'm a bit biased ...

but isn't that the CUTEST little face?

Swimming Lessons are done for this summer! Preschool got out quite a bit earlier than the elementary school did, so Colton got in two full sessions before "summer" even started for the other kids. He did two sessions with his cousin Addie, and then two sessions with Cooper. He got in a LOT of swimming. He really did progress quite a bit. The first three sessions he was in level 1, and then he moved to level 2 for the final session. He's doing a bit of swimming on his own and is pretty fearless in the water. He LOVES to jump, and near the end he was doing these funny twirling twists as he plunged in (his teacher doesn't even need to catch him). The last day, he surprised me (and his teachers) by DIVING off the platform ... and it was a pretty decent dive too! Colton's favorite is the "free time" at the end of the lesson, where the kids get to play with the noodles. Colton loves to have the teachers throw him high, high up to come down with a splash.

Cooper took a total of three sessions (each "session" is two weeks, Mon-Thurs for one hour each day). Kindergarten ended up being out one week for testing, so I put Cooper in the second week of level 1 with Colton and Addie (he had passed level 1 last year). When he was out of school, he did a full session of level 2 and surprised me when he passed it after just taking it the one time. We did a half week at level 3 while the brothers were in Seattle, and then another full week at level 3 to finish up the summer (and again ... he passed! Although he's still so little that the teachers and I agreed he'd be best served to repeat level 3 next year).

It's SO wonderful to see my little boys swimming, I love it! Cooper especially ... when he was a baby/toddler, he HATED the water. He would SCREAM if we ever tried to take him swimming (or even in the bathtub). I would often take the boys swimming, and Cooper would just walk around the pool and wait for us to be done, not even willing to dip his toes in. I could tell the other mothers were a little worried about me letting my baby wander down by the deep end ... but I KNEW he wasn't going anywhere near the water. A few years ago, when we tried swimming lessons for the first time (and this was after Cooper had conquered his initial water fear) both he and Colton SCREAMED the entire lesson, each requiring an individual teacher to just hold them in the water. I think the poor teachers had marks around their necks my boys were holding on so hard! I felt so bad and offered to pull them from the swimming lessons, but the pool director encouraged me to wait it out and gave us family passes to the pool so that we could come and get them used to the water while safe in the arms of Mom and Dad ... and it worked. Both little boys LOVE to swim and seem to be pretty dang good at it too!

The older boys showed no interest in lessons this year ... "Mom ... we KNOW how to swim!" The West Jordan Middle School Pool is one of the cuts the Jordan School District is making, I really hope some magical money appears and they keep the pool open. It's been a big boon to our family!