Two new badges for my two little swimmers
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
I still have all of my Brownie badges—one where I helped make a campfire, another where I got to teach some sort of folk dance all of the other Brownies. Even a sports one, though I’m pretty sure I didn’t deserve that one.
But sadly, I don’t have my swimming badges. Those were hard one, especially my red badge that I had to take three or four times over because I just couldn’t tread water. And my Green badge—I still remember how cold the pool was that summer. My teacher was Greg and he was a hard-ass and we were all scared of him, and we all thought had failed until that last triumphant moment on the very last class. For my White badge, I had to do butterfly, which kept me away every night for two weeks. After I got my Blue badge, my pal Peter’s mom told my mom how graceful my backstroke was. I've never forgotten that.
Kids still get badges, but not for the preschool round of lessons, which is a shame because I'm all for getting kids hooked on the reward of getting badges early! But that's never stopped me before (see Exhibit A and B). I commemorated my son's first ever round of swimming lessons with his Inchworm Kick badge and his bubble blowing badge.
For the record, the baby should've passed Guardian 1—she actually did everything to pass her level in the first class—bubbles, head dunking, kicking, the whole nine yards. She is fearless and brave and loves the water more than anything.
Though truthfully, I don’t actually care of my kids pass swimming lessons or not at the moment (will this change as they get older? Maybe). But at this stage, it's all about falling in love with the water, figuring out how their bodies can move in it, learning to trust that the water can hold them up.
But I'm all about celebrating everything, so I made them both badges—one to commemorate my son's new found love of the water and his bravery during his first round of parent-free swimming lessons. And the one for my daughter celebrates her bubble-blowing and head-dunking— my braveheart water baby who astounded me with her courage.
And then we had chocolate sundaes with smarties on the porch (which I regretted two minutes after it was done because of the sugar madness), but it was still felt like an important thing to commemorate and celebrate.
6 comments
Did I ever tell you that I met my best friend Britt (who I think you went to camp with once upon a time?) at swimming lessons? It was Bronze Medallion or Bronze Cross—whichever came first. The following year we would end up going to high school together, but it was meeting her at swimming that clinched my decision to change schools (and my whole life!). After Bronze Med I attempted Bronze Cross (or vice versa) at least twice and maybe three times but was never able to fulfil the timed swim requirement. I've always been meant for the medium slow lane, it seems.
ReplyDeleteSwimming changes lives! Medium slow lane or not! (The pressure of that 14 minute swim shaved years off my life, guaranteed!)
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Lovely post and nice writing about the swim lessons and two cute swim badges. Thanks for sharing with us. Waiting for next interesting blog.
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