Kids Can Swim

We have been swimming with Pam who owns 'Kids Can Swim' and her daughter Mindee.  They are AWESOME!!  Pam has been teaching for 26+ years, she taught Gabe when he was just a toddler too.  These swim lessons are hard core.  The kind where the kids need to learn to survive and know what to do if they happen to have an accident and fall in water. The lessons are pretty exhausting on the kids and are only 10 minutes long, 4 days a week. When I first got involved I thought really, 10 mins, Why?  Through swimming with Pam I have learned there is a serious condition called Hyponatremia or better known as "Water Intoxication."  In simple terms it means that either too much water has been taken into the body or not enough released, therefore, diluting the sodium content in the bloodstream. The victim may experience shiny skin, bluelips and nails, clammy skin, coolness, headache, confusion, seizures and coma. When children get fatigued, they can actually start drinking water. This is one of the reasons she teaches a maximum of 10 minutes. Plus we are all aware of the length of time kids spend on one activity to the next, due to their short attention spans. She wants your child to get out of the water at the peak of their learning ability. If taken past this they can actually lose some of their skills and practice them wrongdue to fatigue. I've found that they are usually physically and mentally ready to get out at the end of their ten minutes.

I wish I had more pics to share.  I have lots of video!

Bostyn is doing amazing. She is jumping off the diving board and then able to come to the surface and swim the length of the pool all on her own. Cruz loves Mindee and has come such a long way.  I started him at just 16-18 months and he cried the ENTIRE 10 minutes, every lesson, 4 days a week for 3 weeks straight. Cruz is now able to jump into the pool from the diving board/side of pool and come to the surface and float on his back.  He likes to go under water and retrieve rings from the stairs.  They have a great philosophy on their teaching style and why they do it.  Good head and body positioning is so important. When the head is down the feet will stay on top of the water, if they pop their head up to breathe or to see, their feet will sink and swimming will become a struggle. So rather than have them pop their head up to breathe they teach them to roll to their back, this is the safety skill. So the stroke consists of swimming floating swimming until they can get to the pool edge or a safer place. 

Now that Bostyn can somewhat swim and Cruz can float on his back without panicking and just float to safety or until he gets help my Summer is looking awesome.  I picture me pool side with a Diet Coke, magazines, sunglasses and soaking up the sun......hahahaha I wish!  I think I might have just signed up for the busiest Summer EVER!  I will probably be in the water more than out.  Since they both think they can swim and the diving board is now fair game, I think I'm in trouble!  Oh well, these lessons have been so awesome and probably one of the best things I will ever do for my kids.