Swim Lessons

Hannah and Jacob just finished their second year of swim lessons.  I have a love hate relationship with swim lessons.  It is a time and money commitment.  But I want my kids to be able to do what you see Hannah doing in the picture above-jump off the diving board into the deep end and get herself to the side!  So for the 2nd year in a row, we spent 16 of our summer days and several hundred dollars to go to Homer for lessons.  

 Jacob was in the 4, 5, 6 year old group again this year (3 kids to one teacher).  They are very technical with teaching swimming.  So after two years, Jacob has worked on kicking, push offs, going under water, etc.  But he hasn't started on arms yet, which is surprising to me, but I don't know a whole lot about swimming.  I do wish after two years that he was a bit more advanced.  It looks like he needs AT LEAST one more year, if not more.  Sigh.

 Hannah moved up the 7/8 year old group (2 kids to a teacher).  She seemed to advance rapidly this summer.  She is swimming across the pool, working on breathing, etc.  She can tread water.  She can swim under water.  She can jump off of the diving board with confidence and get herself to the side of the pool.  I love it.  This is where I wanted her to be!  Josh thinks she should take one more year.  We will see.

 I learned how to swim by just doing it, so all of the time and money on swim lessons is a little hard for me, although it was my idea initially.  Josh never really learned how to swim, so it's important to him that his kids learn.  I sometimes wonder if we couldn't just go to the pool more and they would learn.  Unfortunately, we don't have a pool close by where we could get a membership.  We would probably have to go to Champaign.  I do love that it gives us something to do, that the kids get to swim a lot, and that they are learning a good life skill.  I'm tempted to take a year off and wait until Aleah can join the crew (once she's four).  We shall see!