Today, however, we finished up Swimming. YAHOO!!! The big thing Brandt had to do was swim 150 yards, continuously, using five different strokes. The was difficult on two fronts. First, Brandt didn't know how to do all five strokes. He had to use front crawl, back crawl, sidestroke, breaststroke, and resting backstroke. He could sort of do the crawls, but he had never done breaststroke or sidestroke, and he had hardly done resting backstroke. All summer, as we've been at my mom's house swimming, I've had him practice. I taught him breaststroke and sidestroke, and we worked on the crawls. It's been hard with other people around, especially the littler people, and so Brandt and I have both been distracted lately. Second, Brandt has no stamina. I wanted to see how long it would take to swim 150 yards and so a couple of weeks ago I swam what he needed to do. For me, it was easy. It didn't take long, I was able to go continuously, and I felt that it was very doable. But I know all the strokes, I exercise regularly, and I can breathe while swimming. All that is a challenge for Brandt.
Earlier in the week, Grandma Sue suggested I bring Brandt over in the morning, just the two of us, and work with him when there wasn't anyone else there. I thought this was a great idea, so yesterday we went over, leaving Blythe at home with Kent. I demonstrated strokes, what to do with arms and legs, encouraged, and cheered as Brandt worked things out. We passed off a couple of other requirements and came home with only three things left to do. Brandt needed to look up prevention and treatment for possible swimming/water related health concerns, demonstrate the HELP and huddle positions while wearing a life jacket, and swim his 150 yards. So close to being finished!
When we got home, I had Brandt do the written stuff he needed to finish, and today we went over to practice again. We thought we were going to practice again. I borrowed some life jackets from Dan Passmore so we could do HELP and huddle, and Mikayla and her crew came along to keep us company. Brandt did a couple of laps to warm up and his breaststroke looked terrific. He did a lap of sidestroke, and then said, "I want to try and pass it off today."
Sweet!
I talked him through each lap, told him I'd keep shouting out what came next, and that I believed he could do it. With Mikayla, Grandma Sue, and me standing poolside and yelling encouragement, Brandt started swimming. He needed to do a total of 12 lengths of the pool. His front crawl looked great, his breaststroke looked great, and his resting backstroke were good. He struggled a bit with back crawl and sidestroke, and when he'd done 9 lengths, mid-lap, while on his back doing resting backstroke, he stopped and said, "I can't do any more." We all shrieked at him to keep going, he was so close, he couldn't quit now. "Only three more lengths to do!" I encouraged. He sighed and kept swimming. As he came in for the final three strokes, he cheered and yelled and jumped up and down. He did it! I was super proud of him, pleased that he kept at it, even though it was hard.
Only two more merit badges to go!!
And because we were there, in the water, and wet, we kept swimming. Here are more pictures to go along with our time in the water.
Cora is yelling "Cannonball!" as she leaps into the water.
Mr. Kal was crabby.
He'd been up late three nights in a row.
He wanted the camera, and he wanted it now.
Cora splashing.
Kal was acting like a remora eel, clinging to Mikayla as she swam around the pool.
He didn't want his picture taken.
it was a fun time and i am all most done with my eagle project
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