My Little Swimmer

This summer the Littlestown pool offered swim lessons again. Ashton, Avery, Bryson and Kenzie all signed up for a two week session, thirty minutes each day. Avery, Bryson and Kenzie were all in level three. After the first week all three passed the level three requirements and moved onto level four during the second week. Next summer they'll take level four and already know some of what is required. Ashton signed up for level five. After her first week she passed all the level five requirements and was then advanced to level six during her second week of lessons. At the end of the second week the life guard told me she passed that too! I asked what was next and he said she was done. He then explained that there are four different level sixes. I then asked if she should take another level six next summer and he said, "I wouldn't bother. There are four different ones and she just passed the hardest of the four. She's done."What Ashton had to do to pass the level six test: Swim five hundred yards using six different stokes -- front crawl for 100 yards, back stroke for 100 yards, side stroke for 50, Elementary back stroke for 50, breast stroke for 50, butterfly for 50 and then 100 yards using a stoke of her choice. She then had to swim 12 minutes to see how many laps she could do within that time. She swam 20 laps in 12 minutes! The last time we went to the pool Ashton gave me a refresher course on the swim strokes she just learned. I learned them once too, but that was so long ago I couldn't remember them all! I then tried to swim just ONE lap (25 yards). It was exhausting! I may be able to walk a 14 minute mile without breaking a sweat, but I can barley swim one measly lap in the pool! How pitiful is that?