In June, I had announced that my family was chosen to be part of the SwimWays Swim Steps Swim Team. We had waited anxiously for the pool in our townhouse community to open at the end of June only to find out that the Homeowners Association decided not to open the pool this year in order to complete some repairs. Still wanting to teach our 3 children to swim, we will have to make due with visiting the local indoor pools and various beaches. Luckily, my mother-in-law's family owns a house on a private beach, so the children were able to do a little swim training on a beach that was fairly quiet.
(Click any photo to enlarge)
Since we wanted our 4.5 year old twins to be able to wear their swimsuits, we chose to utilize the SwimWays Swim Vests from the Swim Steps 2 line instead of the one-piece Swim Shorty. Before that day, the twins had not been willing to go into the water past their ankles, but these Swim Vests seemed to give them the confidence to go in a little deeper. These Swim Vests are not life jackets, but rather they help the children to stay afloat more easily during swim training. I think the twins did surprisingly well for their first time really in the water floating, kicking, and splashing. Personally, I feel much more comfortable in a pool than in the vast ocean.
Our 7.5 year old son had a bit of swim training this past Spring, but needed to get a feel for the water again. For him, we used the Swim Steps 3 Power Swimr. This swim training tool is similar to the Swim Vest except that it is adjustable. There are layers of foam inside the Power Swimr that can be removed one at a time as your child's confidence and skill grows.
When the swim training was done, it was very easy to remove the swim accessories so that the children could go play in the sand. The SwimWays Swim Vest and Power Swimr were definitely the right choices for the beach. Hopefully the children will be able to return once or twice more this summer. It is unfortunate that this beach is 2 hours away. You can view more photos from this afternoon at the beach on my personal Facebook page.
Thank you to SwimWays for sending us complimentary product samples to help with our children's swim training.
