When I was in California recuperating from surgery, Christopher graduated from swimming lessons. He started when he was 3 years old and has been going consistently ever since. It is pretty big accomplishment to graduate, requiring a number of skils in a variety of strokes, plus a lot of conditioning to be able to swim long distances. The conditioning has been the hardest part -- they need to be able to execute the strokes correctly for about 15-20 minutes of lap swimming before graduating, I'm proud of my boy.

Graduating from swimming lessons makes him eligible for stroke school. Stroke school is 45 minutes of intense swimming where according to Christopher "the instructors show no mercy." It's good, hard exercise. At times, Christopher wants to give up. Last weekend, he was invited to his first swim meet. Being in stroke school makes you eligible. He swam 2 events before rushing off to a cub scout activity, and won two 2nd place ribbons. He felt like a million bucks. And he really enjoyed his first real competition of any sort. It'll be interesting to see if the prospect of more swim meets will be enough to keep him engaged in the swimming process. I hate to see him give up something just because it is hard. I think the sport is good for him, brings excellent exercise, discipline, and useful skills.