More Swim!

I mentioned in my last post that both boys were doing swim team. Well Jackson's experience has been a little different than Francis's. Francis may be in in for the lollipops, but Jackson is in it to win it! It started off as something fun to do and he would go to practice each day and hang out with his friends and play ping pong and jump off the diving board afterwards. He participated in a couple of "B" meets (less competitive) and did okay, which we were happy with. Then suddenly he discovered that some of the kids also swam in "A" meets and it became his mission to get good enough to swim in one. The problem was that the strokes are very specific and with the exception of freestyle, he kept getting disqualified. So, he started asking his coaches to show him how to do it legally and as soon as he could swim without getting disqualified he started trying to improve his times. It paid off because, they put him in the last "A" meet of the season and was able to score points for his team by placing third in the breast stroke!

Now, I don't think we will be watching him in the Olympics anytime soon, but with persistence like that, you never know. I tried to get him to tone it down a little at first, but I have been impressed with how hard he has worked to learn about and improve at something that doesn't come easily to him. It is funny how your kids can surprise you....