Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Swimming

Jon Felipe survived swimming today. In fact, he had a great time. As most of you know, at the end of last school year, he had an unfortunate experience on a class swimming outing. Actually, he nearly drown which is obviously worse than unfortunate. He had a seizure during the swim outing and because both his classroom teacher and his special ed teacher were out sick that day, no one had put the plan in place that we had agreed upon to keep him safe. By the time the lifeguard figured out he wasn't just fooling around and fished him out of the pool, he was blue and needed rescue breathing.

Now, he's been swimming with us many times since and enjoys the water. However, he wasn't too sure he could trust the school people to keep him safe in the pool even though this is a different school in a different state. He was sure he would have a seizure and drown. He would even act the whole thing out and show you exactly what was going to happen. It was actually quite funny to watch. It is sad that he has experience this break of trust, but I am glad that he feels he can trust us to keep him safe.

So, I agreed to be right on deck during his first lesson today (actually the first lesson was supposed to be last week, so we built up to it and it ended up being a snow day). The PE teacher wrote up a plan and reviewed it with me, his teacher, his aide, the pool staff, everyone. She even arranged for a male to help Jon in the locker room (a young man I had in class last semester). Jon Felipe has a wonderful instructor who also happens to be our neighbor (this is what happens in a small town). Every possible preparation was made to ensure a good experience.

Well, he LOVED swimming. Now he's counting the days until the next lesson which is next Wednesday. He will have lessons every Wednesday this semester. Fun!


The second graders waiting for their group assignments.



Jon Felipe's group.


This is a beautiful facility. It was funded jointly by the community, the schools, and Dordt college. This is one of the indoor pools. There are also outdoor pools for summer use. The hockey rink is also part of this facility.


It was a beautiful sunny day today and you can see the sunshine reflected off the water in these pictures.



1 comment:

  1. So glad it worked out for the kiddo! We had a sunny day, too...what a blessing!

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