Swimming

One of my goals this summer is to make sure Erik and Lainey both know how to swim independently.  I passed all 8 levels of swimming as a kid and plan to have my kids do the same.  Erik and Lainey have been taking private lessons 1-2 days a week (together) and are doing very well.

Erik can float on his back, tread water, front crawl, do a somersault under water, jump off the diving board, and dive.  I feel fairly confident he won't drown in a pool although I make sure he is not participating in any horseplay which seems common amongst grade school boys.  (Why boys?!)

Lainey can swim (doggie paddle) 25 yards on her own, swims under water short distances, jumps off the diving board and swims to the edge of the pool independently.  I stay within arms length of her still but she is doing really, really well.

Carson has only had 3-4 lessons.  He jumps in (to us) and puts his face in the water, blows bubbles, etc.  No independent swimming yet although he is close.  He happily swims all over the pool in a puddle jumper (life jacket).

Kyle LOVES the water and tries to throw himself out of your arms into the pool.  Thankfully, on of our local pools has a "zero entrance"so he crawls all over until it gets too deep.

On a side note:  One day he crawled over and took a toy off the edge of the pool.  I didn't know the people so I took the toy from him and gave it back to them.  They didn't seem to mind him having it but I still gave it back.  A couple minutes later he crawled right back to them, sat at their feet, and just looked up with a pathetic look his face (Clearly asking for the toy back).  It was pretty cute!

Below are links to  videos of the kids swimming....

Erik flips

Erik and Lainey diving board

Carson