New Swim Levels

Now that we're back to the real world, the usual summer routine resumes.  Today the girls had swim lessons, and although they've been swimming all summer, today's lessons were a new experience for both kids.  Julia has been promoted to Level 5, the highest level, while Madeleine was moved up to Level 2.  Not only did they both have new teachers, but they began working on new skills as well.  Madeleine seemed to hold her own in her class, although her ability to stay focused could use a little work.  She apparently thought the swim class was a mix of actual swimming with social chit-chat.

SWIM TEACHER: Madeleine, can you show me your backfloat?
MADELEINE: Uh, first I need to tell you something.  (looking intently at her teacher as if needing to say something urgent) Two nights ago, I got TOOTHPASTE in my eye, and my eye got ALL RED!
SWIM TEACHER: Oh.  Ick.  (re-directing her) Okay, can you show me your backfloat?

Hopefully after a few days back in our routine Madeleine will feel less of a need to tell completely irrelevant stories to her teacher.

Julia spent her lesson doing laps nearly the entire time; this kid has stepped up into the world of true swim workouts.  I loved getting to watch her making her way down the lap lanes using various strokes, and she seemed to be pleased with her first day in Level 5 when she was finished, albeit pretty tired out.

Madeleine also seemed pleased with herself, exclaiming, "Mama.  I *loved* it!" after her lesson ended.  Furthermore, she seemed to understand the fact that in Level 2 she is actually practicing "real" swimming instead of water games designed to get kids used to the arm and leg motions required to swim.  Or, as she put it:

MADELEINE: Mama?  Guess what.  I think I'm getting out of LITTLE KID strokes, and kind of doing more of BIG KID strokes.

I think she was doing big kid strokes, indeed!

I asked the girls what they thought of their new level class, and here's what they had to say:

JULIA: I thought it was fun and it would make you exhausted because you had to do a bunch of laps, and I thought it was fun when, like, we did it, like, we swam for one 25 and then we swam for another 25, and then we swam the whole length of the pool the second time, because that I got less tired.  

MADELEINE: What I thought of swim is I was really SHY when we went to swim.  SUPER shy, because...I just didn't FEEL right if I was in a different level, but when I was doing it more OFTEN, I felt better, cause it felt GOOD swimming around for so long, I started to feel like, "This is so much fun!  I'm gonna keep doing it!"  And, um, I loved doing pizza kick and I loved doing kneeling dives with my teacher. 

So it sounds like, on the whole, today's lessons were a giant success!