Wednesday 10 July 2013

SWIMMING! #TrojanHero Makes A Splash!

#TrojanHero is nearly six months old and is feeling all robust and adventurous and so we decided to take up our swimming lessons again. As we home school we normally do them throughout the warmer months and then stop over winter as everyone seems to get colds and its generally a bit crappy walking home in the freezing cold after a long swim.

We were organised and excited; the last lessons we had for the kids were almost six moths ago and at that point Sauraus (16) was swimmingly with ease, Roo (12) had gotten over his co-ordination issues and was able to do a length or so and Wig (9) was a strong beginner.

Fluff (7), Petal (5) and Dot (3) were all still getting to grips with the swimming thing and so have to be considered as non swimmers.

Leaving the house wasn't too bad, en-route Sauraus picked a number of arguments which saw us fall out and so we arrived late and moody. Great. Our wonderful CARAVAN OF COURAGE (sorry, didn't mean to remind you of that Ewok brain punch but whenever I say it in my head it's done in bold, terrifying letters sooooo... ) split at that point. @mamacrow took Petal, Dot and #TrojanHero into the ladies changing room while us MEN went into the... well, the men's.

(FAST FORWARDS THE NAKED BITS)

In the pool we saw some surprising things! It had been six months since we'd gotten to a pool, funds have been very tight, getting tighter, but with some sport money from one of the grandparents we could afford this trip! I was expecting a large amount of sinking, floundering, shouting and arm band wearing. What actually happened was that Sauruas got straight over his baseless grumps and started doing laps cheerfully, Roo and Wig flew around the water, swimming under, on the surface and around without touching the floor at all and Fluff, Petal and Dot were super confident in the water!

But how did #TrojanHero do you ask? Small, chubby little lump of love in a massive big blue wobbly thing? Well, he loved it! Fluff was all 'sinky' when a baby, Petal and Dot were very buoyant, so I was expecting him to be quite heavy in the water but instead he floated beautifully! Obviously he is far more like @mamacrow than me. :-)

We were in for an hour and the teen worked out his problems in the water and then turned up to play with the little ones and give them piggy backs around the shallow end. Roo spent as much time as possible swimming under the surface and got a good bit of time with the lovely local teacher we have lessons with.Petal, Fluff and Wig also got a good amount of time with her and Petal in particular seemed to really enjoy herself. Our teachers not just lovely, not just very much in love with the kids but she was also very surprised by how much the kids had come on and asked if we'd been coming a bit before.

That was cool.

Obviously we'd love to be down the pool every week, pursuing a physical education to the fullest but sadly, as noted earlier, we are really unflush and so have to keep the visits to the pool infrequent. Bummer.

@mamacrow got out and changed with #TrojanHero and then returned for Petal and Dot. They headed off to the ladies and the kids got out and walked around the edge of the pool while I swam down the length underwater. I haven't been able to swim for such a long time and normally I'd just walk round with the kids but I enjoyed the freedom of the water, felt the pressure of the minimal depth and had a good look about.

I loved it.

In future I want to make sure we all get to the pool and get the lessons and the confidence flowing... But I want to get there alone or even better, with @mamacrow. Probably be a few years till we can but it's something to look forward to. For now, I'll enjoy going with the kids.

Oh and #TrojanHero? He is looking forward to his next visit :-)


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