Swimming this Summer

I completely forgot to blog about swim lessons this summer! I decided I was done trying to teach them to swim through city swim lessons. They've never been successful learning that way. And this summer I was became more impatient for them to just Do It and learn to swim. So, we signed up for a class with Miss Emily who teaches through a swim or drown method. Of course she would never let them drown but you basically put the child into a situation in which they must learn to swim to the side. As they gain confidence and ability you begin to take them further and further from the edge and they continue to swim to the side. It teaches both swimming and safety. I LOVED it! The boys cried of course and Brynn screamed. You'd think they were being tortured at first. But, after just 3 short days the boys didn't cry any longer. They began to understand that they could swim and they had the tools necessary to successfully save themselves! It was AWESOME. Brynn cried pretty much the whole time, but that is expected. She really did an awesome job. She kicks her little feet so hard and reaches for the side. She learned to catwalk along the edge and get to the step.
After our classes were over the kids spent the rest of the summer swimming up a storm both in our pool, at the YMCA, and anywhere they could find to swim. We had some minor setbacks with confidence as the summer progressed but nothing major!
Cole was pretty close to swimming as it was so this class really put him into the safe zone for sure. He can swim long distances, strokes are coming more easily, and he knows to hold his breath, breathe to the side, and do superman arms if he wants to go really fast. I'm certainly very proud of my cutie patooties!