The Garden School Tattler

Summer at the Garden School is like giant vacation weeks with the kids. It's go, go, go while you fill in those stop, stop, stop hours at the hotel. The only difference is a small one. Few families take 40 kids on a vacation.

Aside from two who are hitting, we've had some real discovery points. I'm really proud of the swimmers. Gage passed his test for the big pool, but is still a little light on the wing for the diving area. Now there's a reason we love Tom so much. He sees that a child really wants it, is smart enough not to get himself into trouble, and yet needs just a bit more practice before he can swim enough to get from the plunge to the side of the pool, so instead of saying, "Nope," Tom says, "Practice in the deeper end, but don't go off the board." Gage was delighted.

Most of the time, swimming is a matter of kicking feet. Lots of children get the arm action, but don't coordinate that with the kicking of the feet. It doesn't seem to go together; it seems too hard to do, but once they become pool kickers, then all actions go with kicking, and the child can swim.

Lots of parents who don't really swim don't understand that swimming is not just one kind of stroke that's stylish and nice to look at. Swimming is knowing how to move your body in the water for the greatest strength. As an island child, I know that sometimes you can put your face into the water, and sometimes it's best not to - boat near, fin near, jelly fish near, waves too high, island disappearing in the sunset. At the pool, sometimes you are looking for someone and you move in the water quietly so you can hear or see them.

Moving quietly in the water could mean several strokes - breast, side, paddle, elementary back or long turtle like underwater strokes. Making your way quickly usually means free style.

Diving is also another way of increasing water strength. There is shore diving, board diving and water surface diving. There is deep diving where you are down and you go further down.

Some children are underwater creatures only coming up for air twice a minute, and then there are the "it's wet; couldn't possibly; you splashed me!" kids who really struggle with water on the face.

By the end of the summer, we hope that all the kids know how to really move in the water. It's a safety thing. I hope every child will jump off the board, and if not the board, the deep end of the pool.

Tuesday, we made log houses -he, he, he - if you had to live in a big one like they built you'd be living down at the river in a beaver dam. But today we will chink them with salt clay. This should be a lark. Actually, the kids did a pretty decent job.

Yesterday we had to buy a new refrigerator and had the air conditioning fixed and the drinking fountain re plumbed. There goes the budget! When we told the man at the store that we needed to buy a fridge that could hold 48 lbs of milk on each shelf, his whole demeanor changed. Not everyone has one need. I hate glass shelves because in a school they don't work. Glass shelves collapse and are constantly in need of cleaning.

Today will be an academic race to the finish line. We will give several paper tests and those children who do all the work, get it right and put their name on their paper will advance to the next most difficult task until we have a winner. Two dollars on....

Speaking of such - anyone want to go out to the races this year? Kids love the races.