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That's a Wrap on Summer Swimming Lessons

And with today's lesson, the kids have both officially finished swimming lessons for the summer. Will has actually been done for a while as he finished his 10 lessons prior to the break we took so the instructor could go on vacation. You can read about him HERE if you haven't yet and would like to.


Today though, wrapped up Kenzie's 20th and final lesson of the summer. I wasn't going to recap her lessons this year, but I am so very proud of her and I just couldn't resist. Mainly so I could get some cute pictures and videos in there showing her amazing progress.


Back at the beginning of the summer, Steven and I thought long and hard about how we wanted to go about lessons for Kenzie this year. Last year she did... okay. Just okay. She made a lot of progress, but we weren't sure about how she was going to do this year due to how much she cried last year. She didn't cry the entire time, but it was a lot and we wondered if it was too much for her to do a full 20 lessons. However, this year started and she just flourished almost immediately. It was as if she not only had every skill come back to her without any issues, but she was quickly adding on new ones and wasn't getting upset very often at all. She still has her moments when she gets frustrated, but it isn't like it was last year. This year though, she is smarter and tries to bargain her way out of things. It's actually a bit humorous (for me, not so much her instructor) to watch. She doesn't win though and ends up not only doing what she was told to do the first time, but usually doing it pretty well.

These videos are from throughout her swimming lesson period this year so they show her at different levels of comfort and skill. However, at the end of the lessons, she can do all of these things pretty well.

She can easily swim to the side of the pool or the stairs with no help (both freestyle and froggy style) from 5 or more feet out. She can also swim out to the instructor from either of those locations.


She can dive for toys (with help to reach the bottom of the pool as she can't actually propel herself to the bottom with no assistance yet).


She can swim the length of the instructor's pool with minimal help.


She can stand on the edge of the pool and jump in (or sort of be tossed), turn around, and make it back to the side with no help.


She can float on her back and has finally mastered the art of rolling over from back to belly and back again. Just this past week, she has figured out how to do the backstroke with no help (other than some guidance so she doesn't run into the side of the pool).


She can even do all of it in full clothing with shoes and everything as evidenced by her final lesson today.



It's so crazy to think that this little girl is the same little girl that freaked out during most of her lessons last year. This year... she swims. She can truly swim with no help though she still likes the help if you are willing to give it. Next year we will go back and see how much more she can learn. I figure by next year, she will be better than me. Haha!



Here she is last summer just so you can see her progress from the beginning until now. It's hard to imagine that this is the girl that cried through Itsy Bitsy Spider as she did her back floating last year and now she is floating on her own and often carrying on a full conversation while doing it (she just can't help herself... she has to chat.)


Our happy little fish!



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