I've been telling Ben he's going to do swim team at our pool this summer whether he likes it or not. Now that he's a pretty good swimmer, he has really come around to the idea.
You don't even have to be good to be on swim team... some kids are, but some kids are still just learning and, from what I gather, for them, it's basically glorified swimming lessons with medals at the end.
Simon was hesitant, but once he heard there were medals involved and that his good friend Quinn is doing it, he said he wants to do it too.
So... swim team.
The pros -
-intensive swimming lessons for a full month
- all their pool friends are there and some school friends too, so it's built-in friend time
- encourages them to push themselves and excel in something
- Ben, especially, could use the confidence boost he'll get from it
- exercise!
The cons-
- Have to be at the pool every day for most of June and part of July. Some days twice a day and meets are twice a week in the evenings
- Meets last hours sometimes
- Have to manage it with Jonathan... Tom will be able to come in the evenings...but I can't depend on much help there really... this would have to be mainly me.
Now... I was talking to a friend I ran into at school yesterday and she told me it's a pretty casual thing. They don't mind if you can't make every meet. Everyone misses some for vacations anyway. She said last year, her family skipped most of the "away" ones because she's in the same position I am with three kids (her youngest is J's age) and it's just too hard to watch him at a strange pool... plus, she said, some of those other pools' teams have upwards of 100 kids and the meets SERIOUSLY last forever.
I really think it would be good for the big boys though. SO good for them...
What to do what to do. I'm just so bad with these kinds of commitments... I should do it, right?
1 comment:
We do swim team and our pools are probably in the same league ( but different divisions). We are watermont & swim agains padonia & meadowbrook from up that way. Anyway, I was a competitive swimmer growing up, but dont care if my kids are. The 9-10 age is tough bc they have to swim two lengths. We treat it as a fun thing and only go to the novice meets (for the slower swimmers). If my kids were point scorers, then I would be more serious about it, but we aren't at that level. We attend most practices, but have missed some for vacations. Again, our pool is not strict. The instruction for our swim team is lacking, but if it were stronger, I would be more strict on attendance so the kids could learn. Emily liked swim team the most because she got to be on the same team as the teenagers. Also, she won her heat in backstroke at the novice meet last year (she's never won anything before and it was only her heat, not the entire event), but she was so happy. If you can join, but do it for fun, then go for it.
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