My oldest daughter started swim lessons the summer we hosted the family reunion. The only reason I mention that is because I found the need to give her diva hair in honor of the reunion, but it had to be hair she could swim in. My solution? Braid extensions, complete with some blue in the front. She was
5 1/2.

And her fear of the water made sure that she barely got those fancy braids wet in three weeks of lessons. It was hard to watch her flit around, scowling at everyone who splashed water on her in the pool! Somewhere in the second session or so I got the idea to have her practice putting her face in the water in the wading pool at home.

While she had no problem at all with pouring water all over her little brother’s head, (he of the no fear), she got all indignant at the idea of getting water anywhere near her nose and ears. So I bought her nose plugs, and ear plugs, and goggles at some point, too.

By the end of her first summer of swim lessons. . . she was able to get her face wet. A little.

The next summer, I enrolled my daughter back at the Red Cross lessons, and my son at the Y. The Y actually took 3 year olds, so that’s why I condescended to take him there. What a difference between the two kids! My son had barely dipped in the water before he was challenging his teacher to races. He took direction well, and the biggest issue with him was to keep him from jumping in out of turn.

My daughter was still a little squeamish, but she was catching on. By the end of this summer, she was actually jumping off the diving board. She was a nervous, skinny little girl, so she swam faster and shook harder than anyone in the pool, but she would make it to the edge.

After that summer, I thought it might be a good idea to have the children in swimming year round so they wouldn’t forget so much between lessons. That was a good strategy, but I would soon find out that all swim programs are not equal. . .

(to be continued)