Swim, swim, and swim some more!

The word summer is synonymous with swim lessons in our household. 

Every year since the boys were 4 they have been taking swim lessons up at the aquatic center. 

They started out as "little fishies" and I think I heard the song "Motorboat" at least 107 times in one two-week span alone. 

"Motorboat, motorboat, go so slow.

Motorboat, motorboat, go so fast."

Once the word fast was said, the kids would put their faces in the water and blow bubbles (and spit all over) in the water. It was great fun...

The little fishies program was done in 2-week sessions and we would only do 1 or 2 sessions since summer is a busy time for us. This year we decided to change things up though and not do lessons through our Parks and Rec. program. Instead we went through the same program that Caleb did his spring swimming with - the Pendleton Swim Association. 

Their lessons begin in June and they will end in August. They are 4 times a week for close to an hour and my children have learned more about swimming this summer than all the other summers combined. Yes, it was more money up front because the lessons are longer but in my opinion, it was money well spent. 

The boys are in the same group (which is awesome for me) but Caleb is a lot more advanced than Owen. Caleb will not move up until he can swim the length of the pool on his own though. The kids stay at level 2 for quite a long time because of this but they really perfect their technique. 

Most days they have a swim instructor for each child (there are only 6 kids in the group but usually only 3-4 show up on any given day). They practice hard the whole time and then have 5 minutes of play at the end. The boys love their lessons and I am just so thrilled with their progress. At the rate they were going before, I wasn't thinking they were going to swim independently until they were close to 12! 

Since we have pool passes we often go to the Aquatic Center for a few hours whenever we can and all the boys want to do is swim, swim, and swim some more. They beg me to get in the pool with them and then they run, jump in and practice swimming to me. I am always ready to be done a lot sooner than they are!

I am hoping they continue to have this love for swimming. It is such a lifelong skill and one that I feel better them knowing, especially since our property is bordered on two sides with water! If they are strong swimmers I will worry a tiny bit less...(just a tiny bit though!)