Chicken, Airplane, Solider...

For all of those seasoned in swimming you know what Chicken, Airplane, Solider is...

It's the most important thing to master before being able to advance to the next level of swimming lessons and actually be able to swim across the pool! 

We finally got Ashtyn registered in swim lessons at the Broomfield Community Center - which I remember swimming at in High School!  She did so, SO well!  I was very impressed with my little fish...

 I was very determined to have my kids swim by the time they were 6 months old, and got Ashtyn in the pool as soon as I could, and even though she has always loved the water and was comfortable the idea of "learning" to swim was just not in her to do list.  I struggled with her in swim lessons - she didn't listen, would never do or try to do what they were asking and just plain did not participate!  So instead of wasting the money I pulled her out and that was the end of swim lessons for awhile...

 Then last summer, she broke out of her shell and started going under the water without forcing and/or bribing her, jumping in the pool/lake, going down slides by herself, and actually finally having the desire to learn to swim!  So I jumped at the chance and got her registered, and it looks like we might actually advance out of level 1 swim lessons!  She's pretty good at the Chicken, Airplane, Solider thing and just needs to get more comfortable floating on her back...hopefully next summer we can do swim team!

I've learned with Ashtyn that she will only do things in her own time - there is no forcing her to do something she is not ready for.  So hopefully this is a good start for her and she will stay motivated in learning how to swim - we do live in the water during the summer, so it's so important that she does!  Now if I could just get Eli to focus long enough for swim lessons that would be awesome, but I think that is a long shot...I will just work with him myself until he is ready as well! 

Level 2 here we come...