The Garden School Tattler

It was another swimming festival at the pool yesterday. One by one they are really swimming. We got Dawson and Taylor and Justin to jump off the edge in the lanes and swim way out to an adult. Dawson went off the board. He was hesitant at first and then the second time, he flew off the board with great joy. It was pretty funny.

Taylor went off the board as well. He was more hesitant than Dawson, but more determined than anyone because when the board closed and the slides opened, he stood by the board with a mad face until it opened again. Dawson, on the other hand, went down the slide.

Jackie was the first swimmer to jump repeatedly into the deep end and then swim back to the side of the pool, but when he took a look at the distance between the pool and the board, he froze and wouldn't do it.

Daymon and Caleb are the next upcoming swimmers. These guys want to swim straight up and down.

The difference between the fun the swimmers have and the non swimmers is really a difference. We have four girls to work on next.

First step - the desire to put your whole body into the water including your face. (Too often a child will want to swim, but he will avoid his face getting wet, and that's not swimming)

Second step - kicking with a strong even straight legged style. ( Children think they can do this without foot power. When they discover foot power - they are nearly swimming.)

Third step - moving arms so that there is a complimentary power and direction added to the movement. ( The greater the reach, the faster we go. It takes a lot of children time to figure this out and coordinate this.)

Swimming builds a kind of confidence that no one can remove. It helps with school work, general achievement, personality development and independence. A child who can swim well knows that it was something he accomplished himself. Someone can show you how to swim but he can't swim for you. A strong swimmer is usually strong in other areas.

Today is a class day. We are testing today for class rank. Should be interesting. Test papers will go home. Rank will be tallied as soon as possible.

Tomorrow is the Freedom Festival. We are still wavering on certain things. I have 5 pizzas ordered from Angelo's. If it's nice, we will eat at Kids Kingdom. If it's too hot, we don't know what we'll do.