The Garden School Tattler

Today was one of those really great graduation days at the pool, and it was so much fun. We started with three swimming groups back in June this year. First there were the Sharks - those kids who could go off the board from the beginning of the summer who numbered about 15, and could already swim. These are mostly the bigger kids who returned this summer from elementary schools because they love us and we love them.

Then there were the Sun Fish, the kids who were not afraid to put their faces in the water, but could not swim - they numbered about 15 as well.

All the other kids were Jelly Fish; kids who were still leery of having their faces wet - about 25 kids.

Then the graduates began to emerge from these groups. We watched as the Jellies began to get wet all over and begin to go under the water on purpose. That's always a lark to watch. We watched as the Sun Fish passed their swim tests and went into deeper waters. It was exciting; it was exciting enough that we named a new swim team - the Whales. These guys are big swimmers now and can go into any of the pool and are encouraged to go off the board. They can jump in the water, go under, find their way to the surface, and swim to the side.

As of today, our sharks are: Hadley, Micheala, Aiden, Briauna, Dawson, Hanna, Bryce, Alex H, Jackson, Alexis, Jack H , Morgan, Jack S, Austin W, Wyatt, Adyson, Nikolai, Logan, and Andrew, Kamden, Austin R, who went off the board today.

The new Whales are: Sam, Nicholas, Kanin, Alex S, Stoggy, Madison, Cole, Addie, Skylar, Emma, Jay, William, Dax, and David.

The Sun Fish Phoebe, Zoey B, Brady, Alyssa, Javeon, Mara, Paige, Donovon, Luke, Isaac, Devin, Spencer and India.

And the Jelly Fish soon to be Sun Fish are Nathan, CJ, Caroline, Zoe, and Reese.

Hopefully, our Jellies will move to the Sun Fish, and the Sun Fish to the Whales, and the Whales will all become Sharks. It's a big big go, go, go! And we are so proud of our swimmers! It really doesn't take much time to swim.

Our goal this year is to have all our Sun Fish become Whales and all our Whales to become Sharks. We're working on it.