We are unschooling…..

SWIMMING.

That’s right - no lessons. Swimming via the sink or swim methods…..

And the results?

Amazing!

Both Allison and Meredith have had probably about 6 months worth of swim lessons back in CO..Allison could swim, sorta, and Meredith could also swim sorta, but had a problem with sinking. Meredith was a pro at swimming underwater last year though. All through the winter I kept saying that I needed to get the girls in swim lessons so they could swim more proficiently by the time summer rolled around. I just couldn’t find a swim lesson that worked for us. Lessons for Meredith’s age group seemed to be during the day, but Allison’s age group lessons were at night or the weekend, and I really didn’t want an evening or weekend activity to schlep the girls to and from…so I never really got them into lessons. I thought about hiring someone to come out to the house and give lessons for a few week as soon as we opened the pool, but have since decided that we won’t do that. When I was a kid, I got a bit of swimming lessons (a couple of weeks? - Marti….care to comment? How long did your mom give us lessons??? I only barely remember it) when we first got our swimming pool, but the rest I learned by actually SWIMMING. My girls have already had months and months and months of lessons and still could barely swim.

So we open the pool, and it gets cold…no swimming. For weeks and weeks. Finally it is hot enough to swim, and swim we do. We have been swimming daily. The first time we got in the pool it seemed as though neither girl remembered a thing about swimming. Both of them ran to get their floaties on. The next day, Allison went at it solo, no floaty, and remembered a bit how to swim, still hung close to the edge. By the 3rd or 4th day, Allison was able to swim short distances, but not all the way across the pool….and now, Allison is swimming like a fish. Underwater, above water, treading water. I predict by the end of the summer she will be diving to the bottom to get those diving sticks the girls throw in each and every time we get in the pool (even though they just sit on the bottom of the pool until I get them out). I predict she will be able to swim the length of the pool (I think she can swim the width now), and will be able to do somersaults underwater. In other words, I suspect that by the end of summer she will be doing everything I did as a kid. Meredith is still hesitant to get rid of her floaty, but she is at least back to the skill level she was at last year, with swimming under water, etc. I’m going to give her a week or two, and then, if it hasn’t happened on its own, I will start suggesting that she practice at least a little bit without the floaty each time she is in the pool.

Now here is the AMAZING part.

Remember baby Lydia? Not even two years old yet? The first day in the pool, she hung to me, having a grand time, but hanging on me. The next day, she was content to hold onto my fingers and kick and swim and played in her boat a bit. Flash forward to yesterday and now she is actually swimming. Granted she does have some floaties in her swimsuit, but they only help keep her afloat slightly, they won’t keep her upright (so she can tip over into the water, or flip over on her back, etc. It isn’t a baby raft type of floaty that you sit in). That child now REFUSES any offers of assistance, and she kicks and moves her arms, she can turn around, she can move forward, she can spin in a circle. She is swimming! We can be out in the pool for 3 hours and she will swim that entire time, refusing help the entire time. I am going to try to get her a vest like the girls have (only smaller), where you have the ability to gradually remove panels so the child learns to rely less and less on the floaty in the suit and more on her own abilities….I predict that by the end of the summer, she will be able to swim like a fish with NO floaties as well….at the tender age of barely two. She already hates the floaties, and putting on her swimsuit today resulted in major tantruming because she wanted some suit that she found in a box somewhere that was too big and didn’t have floaty compartments.