Lionden Landing

Froggy had her first swim meet.  She has made a real change this year and it actually putting in real effort towards improving.  She is trying to get as many "green" ribbons as possible.  She created a pledge-a-thon wwhere people pledge money for tzedka for each ribbon she earns.  A green ribbon means the swimmer beat his/her personal best time in that stroke.   Froggy is starting to make friends on the team this year and want to socialize with her team mates   They all look so much more grown up in their matching swimsuits  Waiting by the side of the pool is probably the hardest part of any meet. Froggy swam in three races at this meet including her first time ever at breast stroke.  Breast stoke is the hardest stroke to do correctly and not get disqualified.  Only 4 girls in Froggy's age group from both team's managed it.  She was one of them.  I am very very proud of her. 

 Froggy competed in her second meet of the season.  There are only four in all so that means the season is half way done. She improved her times in both the races she does.  She is working on learning "legal" breaststroke so that she could theoretically compete in that as well.  It is highly unlikely though she will be ready this year.   But the best news of all was that she placed fifth in her backstroke race.  If she had finished as strong as she started I suspect she could have done even better.  She was so happy with placing.  I have tried to stress to her that the personal bests are much more important but she was far more pleased with placing.

Last night was Froggy's first swim meet as a Marlin.  I was very proud of her.  She warmed up with the team and then fell in with her team fantastically. Post warmups waiting for the meet to start Lined up to head to Clerk of Courts - This meet had over 300 kids so there was lots of waiting. Look Mom here is my card Waiting for her heat.  Swimmers take your mark - this is her freestyle race.  She only does two races and this is always the first. Finally side breathing - it slowed her down this race but will ultimately improve her time. Hanging with friends between races In the pit - Backstroke starts in the water  And reach for the wall!!

Last night was the first practice for Froggy's new swim team. This is officially her third year doing swim team but I think it is probably the first year in which she has a chance of actually being competitive. There were a ridiculous number of children present, particularly surprising were the number of 5 and 6 yr olds. On Froggy's old team, there were less than a handful.  Here there at least a dozen maybe more and all of them are capable. The head coach of the new team is a man which threw Froggy for a bit of a loop but he is great with the kids.  He is a 3rd grade teacher by trade and only coaches as a summer bonus. Coach welcoming all new Marlins and explaining that the first few practices will be different than normal as everyone gets to know everyone else.  Froggy lined up to show off her stuff  Showing off her backstroke Coach regathered all the kids at the end and thanked them for a great first day.

Charlotte Mason recommends at least six hours of outdoor time during the developing years- ie at least lower Elementary Years.  During the Winter, we struggle to get an hour a day.  But as the nice weather resumes we spend more and more time outdoors.   People have asked how do you spend that many hours outdoors and still get anything done. Many days we will take school and food outside and alternate lessons with playing.  Then Froggy will often go back outside in the late afternoon once her school friends come home and play until supper time.  It makes supper preparations very  easy since I can watch the children playing in the front yard while I cook.  Sometimes she will even go back outside for a bit after supper even though her friends cannot join her.  And once Summer is fully here, we spend more and more days outside from sun up to sun set.  Our meals reflect it as well.  We eat lots of salads and picnics and live out of...

What I learned about swim meets this week is that they can be exhausting.  Each family is supposed to volunteer at each meet.  We did not help out at the time trials or the first meet because I needed to help Froggy become comfortable with participating and understanding the chaos.  Having accomplished that I made up for lost time by doing double duty.  It made the meet move faster for me and Froggy enjoyed helping me.  But I came out of the meet exhausted and limping because I had not worn the right shoes. Froggy competed in both freestyle and backstoke this week.  Backstroke is new for Froggy but she completed the race and did not get disqualified.  Many of the little ones get disqualified because the flip over before finishing.  She also took a whole 6 seconds off her freestyle time from last week.  She is one the slowest swimmers in the league and I don't care.  As long as she keeps improving and doing her personal best I am hugely...

This time she did it!  I am such a proud mama. It is amazing what a difference can occur in just one week's time. After the disaster at time trials, I thought that between having a team full of strangers and being at a strange pool, there was no way Froggy would do well. She did amazing.  She did not want to get in the water for warm ups and ended up missing most of it as we talked about it but she did get in and participate eventually with some bribery.  I am willing to use bribery to help a child past a fear.  I won't bribe her or force her to stay on the team or compete in meets if she decided at some point she did not like.  I will however do pretty much anything in my power to help her overcome what amounts to stage fright, to take a child who is very eager and excited about an event and then chickening out a the last minute. After warmups she was much better.  I was still scared because we had gotten this far before.  But she was much more a...

Froggy had her very very first ever swim meet.  She has been looking forward to competing since before the season started.  Apparently though she did not totally know what to expect.  This is the sea of tents that we first saw as we arrived at the pool.  This is the same pool she practices in every day.  This is Froggy getting an overview from the coach with all her age mates.  Here are all the kids gathered for the opening cheer. This is the last positive moment of the meet. And this is the start of the first race. This team is amazing.  In this race one of the young boys got scared and stopped halfway across the pool and would not move even with everyone cheering him on.  His sister got in the pool next to him and walked beside him as he swam the rest of the way.  Froggy was slated to be in the second race with her very best friend.  She marched up to the start line and freaked out.  She cried and refused to even get in the po...

Froggy loves swimming and is very proud of being a part of the Fearsome Frogs. Froggy is hanging in there at swim team despite some very mixed feedback. Many time she tells me that she does not want to go or that she is going to just play. I have explained to her many many times that she can quit whenever she wants but that if she stays she must do her best. It is not fair to her teammates to go and not do her best. Every time I offer to let her quit she redoubles her efforts and demands to go back. We went to the swimming pool as a family on Shabbat afternoon. When we got there Froggy would not even get in the pool at first. She warmed up to the adventure and had a blast. While we were there Froggy said "I know this is not swim team but can we please pretend that it is and practice?" To me that is a real sign that she loves it and is dedicated to the team. I guess it is time to seriously consider a year round team.

ok so it is really happening. Froggy is on a swim team. She is a constant source of delight and amazement to me. I am so proud of her. She is the youngest person on the team by a good bit and at least a full head shorter than anyone else. While this may not matter much in lots of places it is making life challenging for her as she tries to keep up. Her biggest challenges have come mainly because this is her first encounter with a large group organized activity. She is struggling to hear and understand the coach. She gets lost in the crowd and pushed around. She is doing great. The coach was amazed that such a little person could keep up. She offered Froggy several modifications that she did not need.