D has been technically able to swim since last year (https://aglie.blogspot.com/2021/08/d-can-swim.html) but still has room to improve and, of course, Dd, at almost four, is at an age where he could start learning as well. This summer, we tried to swim as often as possible and I made a point of trying out many different pools since our closest pool was, once again, out of commission.
Please forgive the following overly detailed saga about our neighborhood pool...
The city pool near us was closed for renovation for almost an entire year, re-opening in Dec 2019, a few months before covid hit Seattle. Then, it closed in March 2020 and only re-opened to children in summer 2021. About six months later, in mid-February 2022 it closed again, purportedly for two weeks for mechanical and electrical repairs. The big Omicron surge in winter 2021-2022 made indoor swimming seem too risky, so the last time we swam there was around Thanksgiving 2021. That two week closure was extended three or four times throughout the spring, due to difficulty getting parts. Eventually, combined with the national shortage of lifeguards, the city announced that the pool would be closed through the summer.
As frustrating as this pool's recent years have been, I do understand that many things are out of the city and pool management's control, like the supply chain issues, covid and the lifeguard shortage. However, reflecting on the amazing aquatic center we visited in Vancouver and the challenge of finding local pools with reasonable swimming schedules, I've come to realize that pools are just too expensive and can only thrive in a state-sponsored environment. Yes, I am a swimming socialist.
Swimming feels like a very elite thing here and now in Seattle, rather than a healthy and fun life skill that should be available to anyone and everyone. In addition to the experience we recently had in Canada, I remember visiting an incredible and expansive pool in Germany when I was 10 and our friend, who grew up in Germany, remarked that he was also surprised by how limited swimming opportunities are here. It's not just the locations of pools but also the hours. There, pools are more like libraries, where you can drop in during normal business hours rather than during a few short, select windows of time throughout the week.
Boston was a lot like Seattle in this regard. There was a public pool less than a mile from where we lived that closed just before we got there because repairs were just too expensive. I dabbled with various YMCA pools there, which ranged from nicer pools at new Ys in the suburbs, to ridiculous 20-yard pools closer in to the city. We didn't have a car, so accessing decent pools was even harder and it is no wonder many lower-income people just can't swim.
Anyway, enough about swimming in general. Let me tell you about where we swam this summer and how the kids progressed.
In late March I re-joined the Y again, with the kids, instead of with Jack, who mostly was at baseball while we went swimming. As I've mentioned, the Y no longer requires kids to wear life jackets so it is a fine place to swim, although the only open swim times over the summer were Friday evening and mid-day Saturday and Sunday, which are easy to miss for other activities.
Group lessons before a kid can swim a little bit on their own have proven to be pointless, but I decided to sign D up for lessons at the Y to improve on his basic skills. At a minimum, he got to get in the water on a Tuesday evening, when he otherwise would not have been allowed. He learned a little and got some practice in and it was awesome that I was able to swim laps at the time. It's hard to talk myself out of a swim, when the alternative is just sitting there waiting for the lesson to end :) D also did 3-4 private lessons, which were pretty good, but are expensive and can only be scheduled in a competitive, early morning registration frenzy, once a month.
In addition to our local Y, the kids and I swam in wide variety of pools.
- Jack's uncles' pool in Auburn, with cousins, once in the late spring and again in late summer
- Lake Washington - this was only me and my sister while windsurfing and falling in repeatedly
- Radium Hot Springs in Alberta, which had both a warm pool and a regular pool with a water slide
- our hotel in Alberta
- Okanogan Lake in BC
- Hillcrest Aquatic center in Vancouver, BC, which is the nicest pool I've ever been too, with a divided 50-yard pool alongside a 45 yard activity pools (super shallow at some points, a lazy river, etc), a large hot tub and an additional outdoor pool just outside the doors pictured below
- our family friend's beach on Angle Lake, which is an awesome, clean lake
- Mounger pool, an outdoor city pool in Magnolia that I had never been to
- Great Wolf Lodge - only Derek went with his grandparents
- Cottage Lake YMCA pool, outdoors with a water slide
- Normandy Park pool, where I learned to swim and started swim team, courtesy of an invitation from a friend. Seeing my friend's three year old independently jump off the diving board really made me think about opportunities and access.
- Vashon community pool, which also had a slide and some fun foam platforms
- Colman pool, a 50-yard, public, outdoor, saltwater pool, buried deep within Lincoln Park, which I hadn't been to since I was about 12 years old
- Bellevue YMCA pool
D made lots of progress. He re-learned to float on his back, which was easier as a chubby 3-4 year old than as a lanky 8 year old and got quite confident at swimming a modified backstroke. At the end of the summer he started jumping in boldly and doing belly flops. His freestyle reached the point of getting his arms out of the water consistently, but he's not quite side breathing. He passed the swim test, earning a wristband, at all of the pools we went to at the end of the summer and got to go in to the deep end where he enjoyed swimming with fins on.
Dd's preference is to motor around on his own with a pool noodle under his arm pits. He's quite independent and gets to his destinations fine, but I worry he'll accidentally slip off and I doubt he realizes just how much he can't actually swim on his own. He'll blow bubbles if asked and when he's in the right mood will voluntarily dunk under water on the count of three.
Two days ago our local pool did in fact, truly, actually re-re-re-open. We haven't been yet, but the schedule looks relatively good and we are psyched.
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