Swimming Lessons

For the first 23 years of my life, I spent my summers living on Lake Poygan. I took swimming lessons when I was really young and then continued to swim almost every day at the lake. I LOVE swimming! I couldn’t win any swimming competitions but I knew I could swim with all the other “big” kids.

Now, I’m embarrassed to say it, but I didn’t take my own kids to swimming lessons. Brad and I thought we would be able to teach them how to swim. We took Cassie to a “Mommy & Me” swimming class, but that was only when she was 2 years old and it was something fun for us to do together. 

Last summer, I signed Muluken up for swimming lessons. Muluken was never around enough water to swim in while living in Ethiopia, so I wanted to make certain he was able to learn how to float and maybe even “doggy paddle”. Throughout the summer, we went to Grandma’s house to swim at the lake. I always had this nagging feeling of guilt come over me, knowing I never sent the others to swimming lessons. The girls were both pretty good swimmers, but Noah was always apprehensive about large waves or high water. 

So this summer, I signed the boys up for “private” swimming lessons at the local pool. The boys went twice a week for an hour at a time. They swam with one lifeguard and had a lot of fun. The “guilty” feeling has started to go away. They have been learning how to tread water, front and back crawl, and jump off the dock and diving board. I am SO PROUD of both boys! There were some REALLY COLD mornings that they had to go swimming. They didn’t complain at all. Here are a few pictures of the boys’ last day at swimming lessons of 2011.