My oldest four children have been having such a wonderful time taking their swimming lessons once again this year.
Except for Snuggles, who has had to miss his lessons this week, they all love the water, they love to swim, and the love their teacher, Myrna! She is such an amazing swim teacher and has been teaching children (including my siblings when they were younger!) to swim for well over 50 years! She is the best teacher EVER and we are so blessed to have her here.
When Captain was almost 5 years old, he was not speaking very well at all, and we were looking at the possibility of him needing speech therapy. Myrna heard about this, called me, and told me that she would like to give Captain some private swimming lessons. By the end of the 2 week session, he was speaking. It was amazing. I guess the cross patterning of swimming helps develop the part of the brain used for Auditory Processing. In fact, last summer, since we were again working on his Auditory Processing Challenge, this time with a tutor for reading, I had him in six weeks of lessons at the suggestion of his tutor and his progress with reading during that time was incredible!
Anyhow, yesterday was day 7 of the 8 swimming lessons in the 2 week session, also known as “Life-saving Day.”
On “Life-Saving Day” Myrna works on teaching the children a swim-survival-safety technique that she has developed over her 50 year career. “It is based on a controlled method of teaching infants/babies to roll to their backs after submersion and to be able to sustain a floating position until help arrives. This bridges the “danger” gap until the baby/child is old enough to learn to swim and take breaths on their own. This method has been credited for saving many toddlers and children’s lives around water.”
All the children had to arrive fully dressed (with their swimsuits under their clothing) which explains further the picture of my boys on the diving board in their sweatshirts and jeans, despite the 90 degree weather. During the class Myrna taught them what they would need to do in the event that they fell into a pool, lake or any body of water.
She had the children jump into the pool, and roll onto their back into the “starfish” position. Since the girls have their class at 10am and the boys are at 11am, the girls were first, starting with Chiquita.
Just look at her floating all by herself, even with her heavy clothing, shoes and all!
Next it was Twinkle Toes’s turn.
She too did a great job of rolling over and finding her balance.
Next it was time to practice with life-jackets.
Then she taught the children how to join hands and form a circle…
They also learned the position to get into to signal “help!”
Next it was the boys turn.
Can you tell how excited they were to cool off!?!?! lol!
They too practiced the same things at the girls, but after getting a couple pictures, I was off chasing Snuggles around who wasn’t interested in watching any longer…
I was able to get a couple pictures of the much anticipated “Yankee Doodle Pony Race” at the end of the class.
Captain didn’t waste any time once he heard the word go and was in the pool!
They even got to have the race a few more times!
Thank you Myrna for blessing us with these wonderful lessons!!!
Ok, I am off to get ready for today… GRADUATION DAY!!!!
+JMJ+
What an amazing swimming class! I wish Myrna had been my teacher when I was your children's age!
You are so lucky to have this gal teach your kids. I need to get going and find good teaching lessons!!
Great pictures!
She seems so great! You guys are so lucky to have her!
Hi Jessica—
Could you provide me with any additional information on what your child did when he was doing swimming and it helped with his reading.
[email protected]
Any and all info would be helpful.
Thanks
Kessie