Aug 2, 2014

Megan and Caelan and Ben joined the swim team this year. The only requirement to join is that you can swim all the way across the pool. Megan just barely learned to swim well enough to do that at the end of last summer season, and we haven't swam much since then. We took all the kids to the pool before tryouts just so we could try it out. And she could do it there. The first day of practice her coach had all the kids go across the pool. Megan was hesitant and acting nervous. Her teacher actually came up to me and said that she really needed to be able to swim across the pool. I told her we had just gone a few days earlier and that she did it. I was okay if it wasn't going to work out, but I wanted Megan to try it out for the day and see how it went. I talked to Megan and told her just to do what we did as a family and not to worry about going fast and being perfect, but just getting across the pool. I told her I knew she could do it. She went back in to finish out the practice. And she did great. I talked to her coach again afterwards and she said, "Oh yeah, she did great. She can totally do it. She must have just been nervous." So, the first meet came and Megan wasn't so sure about competing. I told her just get in and swim and if you finish the race you get a ribbon. She got in for the 25 M freestyle and she won first place in her heat. It totally gave her confidence to do some other races. It was her only first place ribbon of the season, but it was pretty great that it happened on her very first race. She got several 2nd place ribbons and 3rd as well as all the other places too. Towards the end of the season she would compete in every race that she was able to: 25 M free style, 25 M back stroke, 100 M free style relay, 25 M breast. It was a fun season. I thought it would be difficult to get into town to the pool every morning by 7:50, but the kids were excited and happy to get up and get going every day. Megan also played water polo. She wasn't as excited about this, and sometimes during water polo practice she would spend an extra long time in the shower and miss most of it, but she finished out the season doing it most days. Their team lost more games than they won, but there were a lot of beginners, and they had fun. Megan really improved throughout the season on her skills and her confidence. We're excited to do it again next summer.