An AZ Life Skill

I grew up on the windswept plain of southern Idaho. I didn't learn to swim until I was twelve years old, even though I took swimming lessons for a few summers.  Our city pool was demolished about that time, so our swimming options dwindled to the local lake, the YMCA (of which we weren't members), and a neighbor's private pool (where I was rarely invited). I didn't learn how to swim well until I went to college, and I still am not too swift nor too accurate, but I can get across the pool when necessary.

Raising AZ kids is entirely different.  Kids swim at least once a day all summer long, their bodies browning in the sun and their tongues turning blue and red from otter pops while they dry off.  It's dangerous to not know how to swim when you are around water that often, so almost all AZ kids know how to swim before they start kindergarten, and most learn basic water survival skills between the ages of 2-4.

Evie is three years old--the summer to conquer her water fear.

All four of my younger kids have completed swim lessons with the same teachers, so I knew what to expect.

At least I thought I did.

Four weeks of 30-minute lessons four times a week.  I could count on crying for the first few days, but then it would turn fun.

I was wrong.

This is how Evie looked at almost every lesson, every day for four weeks.  Sixteen lessons. And she cried at thirteen of them.

It was hard on her, and on Miss Jodie, her teacher.

I ended up leaving most days, because she would hang on the edge of the pool and cry for me to rescue her.  I never did.

Basic survival swimming is taught differently from swimming.  These six darling little girls were routinely dunked, thrown, knocked, pushed or tossed into the pool, then taught very carefully how to recover and get to the side.

It's not for the weak, that's for sure.

She didn't shed  single tear on penny day--where they dive for pennies and then they can spend them at the makeshift snack bar run by the teacher's son.

Hyrum took lessons in the same pool at the same time.  He was the best swimmer in his class, and probably could have moved up a level, but his teacher was really good at adapting what they were learning to his abilities.

He also loved penny day--although Mrs. K limited him to twenty pennies.

Hyrum always kept Evie in sight, encouraging her and trying to help her not be scared.  I love the tender spot he has in his heart for her--he's a great big brother (most of the time).

I tried a "thumbs up!" signal with Evie--every time she resurfaced after struggling to the side, I would give her a thumbs up, and if she wasn't coughing or crying too hard, she would give me one back.

I always laugh at how these little AZ kids shiver in the pool during lessons.  The water is probably 82 degrees, the air temperature anywhere from 90-105 degrees, and yet they shiver.

I am so thankful to Jodie for sticking it out with Evie this summer.  Just last week she jumped off our diving board all by herself and swam to the side.  All the tears and fights were worth it.

Evie can swim.  And I can breathe a little easier in the pool.