Our Little Swimmer

Savannah just shone yesterday as she successfully completed the first of two tests for her 'A Diploma'. This has been a long time in coming, partly because she only gets to swim for 30 minutes, once a week and also because this swimming thing in Holland is the biggest money making gimmick. Beginners start in the extremely warm pool in the basement--we call it the dungeon, we sit there and melt. That's the white group. Once they feel your child can do all the basics of beginner's swimming i.e. go under the water, jump in, and float assisted, and provided there is space in the next class, we move on up to the big pool upstairs to the next group (yellow, I think). Then it's the orange group, then the green, followed by the light blue and finally, an invitation to participate in the A Diploma tests. Each group takes about 3-6 months and each lesson costs Eur9.50! Just over 2 years later, here we are, about to move up to the B and C Diploma classes (which only take about 3 months each). Saturday is the final test, so wish us luck! Savannah did so well yesterday and managed to achieve all the obstacles set out for the children (breast stroke, back stroke--with swimming cozzie, t-shirt, shorts and shoes on!, diving and swimming through a hole in a plastic sheet, 100m of stroke swimming, free style, floating on tummy and back, treading water and holding breath in water for 10 seconds). Whew, that took about an hour. Bryn wonders how I do this week in and week out--the love of a mother, I guess, and a good friend Fiona. Up until now, we've shared the load and done every alternate week. Now that Madison has started lessons, yes, you guessed right--in the dungeon, I get to come every week.

It was fun to spend the afternoon at the pool as a family. We stayed to swim in the recreational pool for a couple of hours afterwards. Such fun spending quality time together.