Polar Bear Club

Tuesdays are getting exciting around here!  Brian, our awesome adventure therapy coordinator, has talked a local swimming pool into half price entrance for our boys to start swim lessons.  Most of the kids can stay afloat, but actual skill level in the water is low.  I've offered to help since I had awesome free lifeguard training back in my Eckerd days!

So the first Tuesday of September we took a handful of boys to the pool in the morning, and another handful in the afternoon.  Tuesday turned out to be the windiest and therefore coldest day of the week, and the water was frigid, but we had fun anyway!

Always so eager to help each other get in the cold water

Teeth-chattering fun!

Once they were all shivering, Brian started the real lessons.  Luckily I got to stay out of the water and help keep an eye on what was going on down below!  10 seconds was the record for how long they could hold their breath underwater, which we'll have to work on.

Everybody has to at least try holding their breath

Once hypothermia set in, everybody was out of the pool to learn the strokes for treading water under the warmth of the sun.

Arm strokes with resistance...aka strength challenge

The afternoon boys had a little extra motivation to get into the cold water...

The Enforcer

This group was also a little on the shorter side, so we started in the more shallow end.

Mostly paying attention

Honestly the boys loved getting out of the classroom for an hour, getting in the water no matter how cold it was, attention from super-cool Brian, and learning something that they really enjoy and will make them more "manly."

Our future Olympic swim team

No pictures from last week.  Brian was still getting over his cold (probably caught week 1) and I was battling an amoeba.  We still took two more groups out to the pool and actually had one of our more timid guys show some remarkable bravery being the only one in his group to try treading water in the deeper end. We will keep going out on Tuesdays, so pray for lots of sun for us!