Swimming upstream

Dutch just finished up her swim lessons for the summer. She does a fabulous back crawl, a serviceable backstroke, and a terrible front crawl. We're pushing her to improve enough to do the parks and rec "swim team" next summer, and she seems to be on board with the agenda. She's been really persevering through an epic struggle with learning to do effective side breathing. (She can do it the whole length of the pool, but only with great effort, and it's ugly and exhausting.) As a proven quit-when-the-going-gets-tough person myself, and having assigned Dutch the same tendency, I'm delighted and impressed by the mental toughness she's showing on this tough going.

The kids get to go down the slide at the end of their last swim session. They like that.