Friday, July 27, 2012

Swimmingly!

It was our second night of swim classes and KC and Lissa did so well!  It was a more challenging night as it was the last lesson of the session for the other kids--mine having started at the tail end.  So it was the lesson where evals were done to decide who would progress from "polliwog" to "guppy."  I definately still have 2 polliwogs but I am impressed by how hard they are trying.  Lissa also seems to have real natural ability in the water.  KC always has loved the water but he tires easily which worries me. (that boy needs to learn how to float!) Lissa, who has great physical strength, is just a natural.

Drowning is the second leading cause of death in African American children under age 14.  I have always been adamant on my kids learning to swim, but that recently learned stat is really really scary!  I do have lots of adult black friends who do not know how to swim.  I always thought it kind of weird, but I have been swimming since I was Lissa's age.  And I realize that our summers spent on a lake put me at a far greater advantage for having the repeated water exposures that facilitate both learning to swim and a comfort level with water in general.  However in both KC and Lissa's class there are other black kids so at least it looks like in our locale, there is an increased awareness among parents of all racial and ethnic backgrounds on how important learning to swim really is.

2 comments:

GB's Mom said...

With the exception of my kids who where adopted older, all my kids could swim before they were three. Hope learned her first summer with us (at 5). I agree, it is a life saving skill. My older kids had a black friend who couldn't swim and drowned in a local creek. Such a tragedy!

Todd said...

Our kids both had swim lessons when they were under 10, didn't swim for a year or so, then we moved to a place where we had our own pool and they re taught themselves :)