Mia the Swimmer

On Saturday Mia said that she wanted to swim without floaties.  So we headed into the pool.  Just her and I without any distractions at first.  I've asked her on a couple of occasions if she wanted to practice swimming, and the answer has always been, "No, I just want to swim with my floaties."  Tracey tried to get her enrolled in swimming lessons, but the classes were full for the first round of sign-ups. The fact that she wanted to try on her own was really important in the first place.  Without the desire to learn it really is impossible to do so. The fear factor is just too overwhelming.

So there we were in the pool, with goggles and NO floaties.  The first thing Mia needed to learn was using her arms at the same time as her legs.  She was trying to keep her head above water the whole time. So then she started kicking and using her arms with her head in the water.  She was very good at holding her breath, but not so good at taking a breath when she needed one.  It turns out that's kind of a problem when your swimming.  In other words, she could only go as far as she could hold her breath, which was okay in the shallow end where she could stand, but this was going to be a problem with her new confidence level.  She thought she could swim better than she really could.  

We practiced taking breaths and she got better.  Yesterday she wanted to go in the pool as soon as we got home from church.  When we finally got in the pool we had some time alone again while Sarah read in the house and Grace and Tracey were shopping.  It was another great opportunity for some one-on-one Dad swim lessons.  By the time we were done she was jumping off the diving board and swimming across the entire pool.  I swam next to her but she was taking breaths all the way across the whole pool.  She still needs lots of practice, but Mia can swim better at three than the twins could after their official swim lessons.  I'm proud of my little swimmer.