Head Out of Water

So Hunter decided that he can swim with his head above the water last weekend.

We've gone swimming a half dozen times this summer, and while it took me until last week just to get him to swim under water like he did at age three and four, (although I wasn't really focusing on it too much, we were mostly just splashing around) he can finally, legitimately, swim.

I am incredibly excited that it was so sudden and effortless, on both of our parts.

You can read the summer 2009 post and especially the summer 2008 post on a little bit about our journey in learning how to swim. Even though we don't have that long of a history in Hunter's learning (he hasn't gotten nearly the ideal opportunity / exposure to swimming), it has been a fun adventure and I'm so excited for where we are now.

What's next for us?

Well, seeing that my goal for this summer was to get him to get his head out of the water and, perhaps, perfect that head-above-water swimming, I guess we'll be working on the second half of that goal and hopefully progress from a professional dog-paddler to a bona fide crawl-stroker.

Using exercises from sections 4 and 5 of How to Teach Your Baby to Swim, we'll be breaking down the elements of the crawl stroke (1. breathing, 2. arm motions, 3. leg motions) in different, fun activities to work on each element individually, practicing diving, streamlining, back-floating, and, of course, lots of fun games.

Hope everyone else has a great swimming summer!

"Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered..." 

Psalm 18:15

Hunter is 5 years, 3 months old