We went to a different pool this summer, and she did awesome! I was happy to see that the pool was deeper water (about 3 1/2 feet deep - so no cheating), there were only 6 students in her class with one (more mature) teacher who actually got in the water and showed them how to do things, and sang songs and played games that made it fun. I think it was more her maturity level, and her having more experience in the water. She's been going to the water weekly with daycare, and since she's in a daycare class with all the school-age kids (entering 1st grade up to 6th), she's of course being motivated by the bigger kids.
So, things went very well. I actually didn't know she could do as well as she could! Level one is supposed to be able to:
1) Blow bubbles (3 seconds)
2) Front and back float (supported)
3) Bounce up and down in chest-deep water 5 times
4) Supported kicking on front and back
5) Safety rules
The teacher, a couple days in, let Kaylen do the floats and kicking unsupported, because she can! In fact, by the end of the 2nd week, she barely watched Kaylen do it. She didn't however suggest that she move Kaylen up to the next level - that's probably a sales tactic - they'll hold them back but not let them move up. Oh well - it did give her some confidence. She was so proud of herself. On the 4th of 8 days, it was a parent-watch night, and she was so excited to show me a surprise - that she could do it without the teacher supporting her like she had to with the other kids in the class.
Level 2 will add the following to Level 1: holding breath under water for 5 seconds, unsupported floats for 5 seconds and recovery, submerge and retrieve objects in shallow water, front and back gliding 2 body lengths. I'm not sure if she could do the 2 body lengths gliding (maybe though - see video below), but I'm certain she can do the rest - she was doing it in lessons this year. We talked about doing lessons this fall or winter again, so she doesn't lose what she learned. The pool we took her to for lessons is an indoor pool, but it will depend on whether it conflicts with fall soccer.
A few pix of her new techniques:
The back float:
...and the front float (that's the teacher standing at left, nowhere near Kaylen):
Some (very short) video clips (note - the last one is the funnest - turn off my music and turn on your volume and listen to the song that goes with it):
2 comments:
There is a big difference between getting out of level three and going into four that you'll want to watch out for next summer. It's like they need a level 3 1/2. Jasmine is still in three thank goodness. I want her to be really strong in her breathing and endurance before going to four. We did 8 half hour lessons in June and the teacher wasn't that into it and it was rained out 3 days but they sat in the locker room and talked about safety so they called those lessons.
Then we did 8 days at the end of July and she had a different teacher and really started making progress but now she won't really have a chance to swim again until next summer so she'll be starting all over again.
Kathy - I heard that the Red Cross was revamping their levels starting this fall (at least at our pool), so maybe that'll be one of the changes they're going to make, but thanks for the heads up - I'll have to watch out for that in the next year or two. We should know in a couple weeks if the fall lessons conflict with soccer.
Around here they try to do the safety stuff one day, and keep it flexible if doing outdoor lessons and do it on the stormy days. The indoor ones we did this year though, they just spent one day doing the safety stuff - a video and some practice with life jackets in the diving end. Three days would be a bit much, but they schedule things so tight, it'd be hard to do make-up lessons - probably same as there.
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