With the warm weather coming quickly, I'd just like to share a reminder of why we should all make sure our children and grandchildren take swimming lessons!

It was my second season teaching Sarina swimming lessons. Now 26 months old, she was progressing very well. One day, her babysitter brought her to swim lessons. During the lesson, she asked me what I thought the baby would do if she ever accidentally fell into a pool. To demonstrate my answer, I gently tossed Sarina a couple of feet away from me and said, "Swim to me!"

As she swam back to me, I told Becky that I felt pretty confident that Sarina would remember what we always practiced; she would turn around to swim to the nearest wall or step.

The very next morning, Becky needed to take the older children to the pre-dawn swim team practice at our city pool, so she pulled Sarina out of her crib and loaded them all into the family van.

As the swim team children gathered at one end of the pool, a sleepy Sarina sat at the other end, dipping her toes over the edge of the pool. While both Becky and the lifeguards' attention were momentarily focused on the swim team children, Sarina fell into the pool.

Immediately, the tiny child turned around, swam to the wall, grabbed it and yelled, "Becky! Becky! Get me out of da pool!"  

When I next saw Sarina, I asked her what had happened at the big pool. She said "I fall in and got my jammies all wet!"

I asked what she did after she fell in. She said, "I swim to you!"

"You mean you swam to the wall?"

"Yeah!" She grinned, "I swim to da wall, like you say!"

And THAT is why I love teaching swim lessons.

Remember:

It only takes a moment for a tragedy to occur, so, please be vigiligent around water!