Physical education does not need to always be games and exercise in a gym or on the field. Pioneer Adventist Christian School decided to go to the YMCA's pool twice a week to learn how to swim. This is the second year that the school has gone to the YMCA to learn the skills of swimming. First-year everyone is nervous and fearful of the water, but in the second year, the kids are excited and eager to get in the water.
The older swimmers are doing laps, basic survival skills, and learning new strokes. The laps are building the kids' endurance. The basic survival skills are: floating for long periods of time, learning to remove leg cramps while still in the water, and how to help someone else who is having trouble. The new strokes that they are learning are the freestyle, the backstroke, and the sidestroke. The kids picked up and got the freestyle and the backstroke very quickly, but most kids took a couple of weeks more to master the sidestroke.
The younger swimmers are learning the basic skills of the doggy paddle, blowing bubbles, and floating. The older students partner up with the younger students to show and help the younger ones learn their skills. The younger kids are eager to swim out to their partners with lifejackets on, but they get more excited when the jackets come off and the older students hold them while they swim. They love to see who can blow bubbles the longest. The younger ones also like to have the older student partner hold them as they try to float on their backs.
Each group is having fun learning these new skills and getting better at swimming, but the YMCA pools have broken down. Now the students are waiting to take their final test for swimming. Please pray with me that everything will be fixed soon.
by :: Amy Ward