Baby Boot Camp

It was truly baby boot camp today at the pool and all the kids got involved to make it truly memorable.

We are paring down the days until the end of the summer field trips to the pool. We had today, we have Friday, Monday and Wednesday, and then it's done for the summer, so like the days, we are trying to get all the non-swimmers to be swimmers, and the swimmers to be board hoppers.

Ben and Madison, our teen and pre-teen helpers worked like a couple of boot camp generals today while they encouraged Ty, Allan, Drake, Morgen and Briauna to jump, swim and make it to the ladder.

I thought Ty was going to die of delight. He's ready - just. He got his courage up and admitted he wanted to jump off that board more than anything. He just barely made the test in the shallow end, but we took him over anyway to watch the jumpers, and he said he'd like to jump in the deep end even if he didn't go off the board.

Ben coaxed him to jump out to him and swim. Ty did it, and as Ben moved back in the water, Ty swam a little further and a little more and finally he decided that he'd try the board because he was really swimming. These big kids worked these little kids so hard it was a real badge of courage for the little ones to keep it up. Someone's going to sleep well tonight.

Briauna was first to go off the board. She hemmed and hawed until she finally jumped. A really pretty guard named Kristen helped her by getting in the water and offering to catch her. It worked wonders. Briauna made all kinds of good decisions today. We were very proud of her.

Morgen S was certainly not to be undone by her friend, Briauna, and Morgen jumped with some coaxing and Miss Judy under the board to catch her. She did fine.

Then it was Ty's turn. He just walked off the end of the board as if it were the easiest thing in the world. In fact, his first jump was head first. He had a little trouble swimming to the edge, but after a half dozen jumps, he had no more trouble. He's a swimmer now!

Then low and behold, there's Drake perched up there on the board looking very fetching and like a big boy swimmer, and off he jumps. He certainly didn't want to be left out of the loop or off the board.

Next time the generals are going to go after Austin and Allan and Leah.

Aiden passed his test, but he's still a little weak for the long swim to the edge. He paddles OK, but he doesn't make any headway.

Faith passed her test as well, but she's still questionable as to whether she can actually jump, come up and then swim to the edge without some panic. We don't want to scare them; we want it to be a success.

It was a great day.