Progress in Kayaking and Swimming

When you ask literary kids to label their sandwiches, funny things happen. 

The girls are old enough to take the kayaks out without me now. So they've been exploring the pond together, each in their own boat, while I get even more reading done on shore. It's lovely that they are good enough swimmers and old enough to be trusted to do some exploring on their own. 

The other day, I saw that they were bent over, intently watching something happen on the surface of the water or on their boats for over half an hour; I couldn't tell what they were watching from where I was on shore. But, they paddled over to the shore and showed me, they were watching a dragonfly nymph emerge from the pond and come out of its skin and lengthen and dry until it was ready to fly. They were astonished and enchanted. 

After two weeks of swim lessons and practice every single day, the girls have progressed to swim level four. They know freestyle, backstroke, elementary backstroke, and breaststroke. They have started learning butterfly. We've been enjoying doing laps together for the last few days, which is really lovely, because I have always wanted them to share my love of swimming laps.