Swimming Lessons: A History

Let's start with me.  My foggy memories of swimming lessons include the rubber smell of my swimming cap being stretched across my head, while my mom painstakingly tried to tuck all of my hair up into it (though invariably jabbing me with her fingernails;  she didn't mean it), and jumping from the diving board with my body strategically shaped such that as much surface area as possible would make contact with the surface of the water and my face would avoid submersion.  I didn't like swimming lessons.  At all.  And today I could save myself from drowning and I have enjoyed water fun - but that's about it.  I'll never be swimming in the lane next to Michael Phelps and I'm okay with that.

My kids lack fish-like tendencies also and so swimming lessons has been more of a chore than a joy.  Finally (and probably too late, in retrospect) I decided to research other places that offer lessons.  I decided on a company that ran their lessons year-round in a local hotel pool.  Selling points: small teacher to student ratio, heated pool, and once a week schedule. 

Paige and Will were cautiously excited about the lessons.  I mean, it IS swimming in a hotel pool, a usual highlight to any overnight trip...but it WAS lessons.  Their class consists of the two of them plus one other boy Will's age.  I signed them up for the lowest level, not being sure how much confidence they'd have in the water since it has been winter.  The teacher was young, quiet, and somehow magical.  She had control of the pool and the kids and managed to get them to do things in 30 minutes that they hadn't really done in 2 weeks of their previous lessons last summer.  Sold. 

At the end, she informed me that they both performed all the benchmarks to instantly be at the next level.  The kids were SUPER pumped!  Paige likened it to skipping a whole grade of school.  While that's comparing apples to oranges, I didn't want to rain on their parade!  Bring on next week!