And yes we are shocked at that one!! Monday night Salem had a swimming test for BSA (Boy Scouts). For the past 2 weeks we have joked he's gonna drown...okay I guess that's not the best thing to joke about. We knew he'd be okay since they have lifeguards and such, but still scared us they wanted him to jump in the deep end first! We said he was going to jump in but not make it back up. Salem himself was saying he wouldn't get very far, but wanted to try. I said just make sure someone is ready to jump in after him! They had a lifeguard there and the one scoutmaster swam along side of the boys, so it was very safe for them!
They have a canoe trip planned for the end of May and the boys needed to pass the swimming test in order to be able to go on the canoe trip. Well bummer for Salem we have a bike race that weekend, so he won't be able to go...pass or fail. But they wanted all the boys to do the test anyway. I guess it also might count for their summer camp swimming test too. Monday night was also our cub scout committee meeting so I had to be at that while Salem and Keith were at the Y doing the test. Keith did promise to text me updates and that he did! Salem was the last boy off in his group so had to wait a bit. Most of the kids were really good swimmers and had no probs. Keith said a couple kids were slow and not so good at swimming. Finally it was Salem's turn. They have to jump in the deep end, surface, swim to the shallow end, turn swim to the deep end, swim to the shallow and and then back to the deep end (final lap on their back). And then they have to float for 1 minute. All this without stopping. Any stroke could be used, although for the "official" test you can't use the doggie paddle. So Keith is texting me saying he jumped in and came back up and started swimming!!! He got halfway down the pool before he had to stop and grab the side. So for the real test he would have failed then, but heck that's really impressive!! He did the 3 lengths stopping a couple times and then when it was time to do the back he had trouble, kept running into the wall and stuff. Salem was saying the backstroke would be the easiest too. So geez we were all wrong about this swim test!
But he did a good job for what we all thought he'd do! Makes us realize swimming lessons need to be on the list of things to do! We got an email later that night saying he did pass and could go on the canoe trip, too bad we won't be here to pick him up. None of the other kids (whose mom I know) are going so I can't even have Salem stay with them Sunday till we get home. Ah, there will be more trips, they do this every year! But yeah for Salem and not drowning!!
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