Audrey and the Diving Board

Audrey has been doing great with learning how to swim, considering that just last year she was still afraid to put her face in the water.  Recently, her newest "trick" is going off the diving board by herself.  

It's been a process that started in swim lessons last summer.  This was the first time she went off the diving board.  One teacher lowered her into the water, and then another teacher caught her.  

This year, she surprised me by being super brave during her first swimming lesson of the year.  She was willing to jump off the diving board by herself to her teacher who caught her in the water.

Then, just this past weekend, she decided she wanted to go off the diving board all by herself.  Pool rules say that she needs to show a lifeguard she can swim across the deep end.  So she showed them, and then she jumped off the diving board all by herself, with no one in the water to catch her.

And then, she did it over and over and over again.  She eventually grew confident enough to get a running start and jump off the board.

After all the diving board excitement, she was willing to go on the water slides too!

Now we just need to work on getting her to do it without plugging her nose.  And on improving her swim stroke.  While we are pretty confident that she can keep herself above water in the deep end, it's not always pretty.  But she has made HUGE progress this summer, and I'm super proud of her!