Marcia Schopbach

I just wanted to let you know that our swimming has been going great this summer. Taylor has been practicing the stroke technique she learned with you in June. She is working hard on not lifting her head when she takes a breath and she continues to breathe every third stroke. Prior to her lessons with you, she refused to participate in camps and activities which involved swimming, but now she jumps right in! Her skills and confidence have enabled her to really have fun in the pool. I feel secure knowing that she can participate in these group swims and have fun but also be safe.

Maddy was more reluctant to practice her SWIM•Float•SWIM! skills, so I made her
get out of the pool and explained that she couldn’t go back in until she showed me that she could still float to rest and breathe and swim to the wall. It took about a half an hour of her watching her sister practice and jump in and dive for rings before she decided to practice with me. Now she does her skills on her own whenever we swim. Her favorite thing is snorkeling. She gets her gear on and we snorkel up and down the lanes and across the pool non-stop! You can actually hear her giggling through her snorkel!

When we started with you eighteen months ago, I knew the importance of water
safety and survival skills, but I had no idea back then how much swimming and water sports were going to be a part of our lives. We vacation every year in Hawaii where the kids are either in the pool, at the beach or on a boat whale-watching. We now co-own a power boat with the Hulets and have been to their lake as well as Lake Powell this summer. It is amazing to see my kids swimming and playing in the lake and tubing behind the boat with Nicole. Remember their first week with you? It is hard to believe they are the same kids. It also works well that the 5 kids (ours and the Hulets) all learned their skills through you. Ann and I get all of them in the water–Nicole and Taylor work on their stroke while Maddy, Sarah and Ashley are doing SWIM•Float•SWIM!

It is pretty awesome to watch. I’m sending you a picture of the five of them at the pool, posing in their Infant Aquatic Survival t-shirts.

I plan on keeping the kids swimming this fall, and we will see you in the spring
for a refresher. Thanks so much.