Swimming

When I was child, my dad used to take us swimming regularly, usually weekly on a Friday during winter and every Sunday morning in summer, before going for Sunday lunch.  There were no rules then about how many children to one adult and he'd often take all three of us.  Not something that I could imagine feeling confident doing with my three, even if there weren't rules to prevent it.  Needless to say we weren't very old before we were all pretty good swimmers.

I feel that it is very important to be confident around water so I feel a bit sad not to have taken our children as often as I would have hoped.  The last time Toby went was at centre parcs, when the competitive streak in him came out when he noticed a smaller boy than him was swimming without any floatation bands and he resolved to be able to do this himeslf.  He practised and practised and by the end of the weekend he was pretty much there.

On Saturday we drove nearly an hour away to a lovely pool that is light and bright and has a sensible policy for non swimmers.  I know that I'm meant to be focusing on positives here but I do feel the need to fit a bit of a rant in, about the last swimming pool we visited that wouldn't allow non swimmers any deeper than my calves.  Meaning we were stuck, shivering in tepid water that was far too shallow to learn to swim in!  (rant over) 

The pool we visited on Saturday is a lot more sensible and we all had a lovely time.  Mathilda showing absolutely no fear as she explored, occassionally letting herself get out of her depth, safe in the knowledge that we were right by....and shouting 'help me' before she bobbed under the surface, only to come back up in  our arms grinning, ready to repeat the whole thing again.  Tristan floated around happily in his arm bands, looking very chilled out and relaxed and Toby worked solidly trying to improve his swimming.  He had slipped back a little since March, but by the end of the session had caught back up with himself.  

After swimming we went into town and treated the children to hot chocolates - and this boy really does know how to enjoy hot chocolate!