Swimming Under Water : The Staring Contest of the Sea
Before heading over to gramma’s for another swim (and snack from gramma’s snack drawer) I reminded the new goggler how little time he spent under the water on his trips under the surface. I figured it was because he was fighting buoyancy and had not learned how to keep himself down.
I then realized he probably had no idea how long he could hold his breath for…how long do you stay underwater for before dying?? You don’t try to figure that out when you are five, you get back up to the surface!
I reminded him of our staring contests and had several breath-holding competitions all in a row. Just like how your body is going to blink, your body is going to breathe. But there is a while before ‘uncomfortable and emergency’. I even gave him the ‘when it really starts to burn, instead of finally taking a breath, just blow out a little bit and try to last a little longer. Repeat while you can.
See how long you just held your breath for? You can be underwater that long, you know… #jawDrop
Swimming lessons?? Unschoolers call it ‘swimming’.
The five year old jumped into the deep end without his floaties on without anyone reaching to get him and swam to the shallow end. There was cheering.
What does that make a three year old do? Take off her floaties and go for a swim in the deep end herself! It seemed like she just decided to swim so swam!
He had his goggles on last time. So she wanted to wear hers this time as he moved on to ‘first-time unassisted mask swimming’.
She saw him having fun underwater so she plugged her nose and stuck her own face in the water.
She was already floatie-jumping from the ladder if I was there to catch her…so I moved out of the way.
He learned how to hold his mask to his face when jumping in, streamline jumping, and reaching the bottom for a superkick back up to the surface.
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