Swimming and some history

This morning Duncan had a dentist appointment. He did wonderfully, but he has a cavity. Blah. But anyway, his appointment was very early, so we had more than an hour to kill before the kids' 10:10 swim class. There's a nice used bookstore just about 3 blocks away from the class, so that's where we went.

The kids have been to this store a number of times and know where the kids section is. They headed back and started looking at the books on display. I was back in the kids section with them, looking at books on academic subjects. They've got shelves for US history, World history, ancient history, biography/auto biography, geography, general science, earth science, biology, math ...

So I pulled out a book on pyramids and leafed through it. I was determined not to buy anything, but I was tempted :) I put that book back and pulled out another one on mummies (can you tell our SotW lessons are about Ancient Egypt?). I was leafing through that one when Sayer came over to show me something. So I showed her something - the sarcophagi in the mummy book.

Next thing I know we're sitting on the floor in the corner of the kids area (well, I'm sitting, she's laying on her stomach, head propped up in her hands) pouring over the pages of the two books. I pointed out things that we'd just read about, and introduced her to the Rosetta Stone and the idea that not only people were mummified (we saw pics of mummified cats in the book). We saw pics of canopic jars and she understood then what I had meant when I tried describing how the heads of gods were carved on the lids. We saw the burial chambers hidden behind sealed doors down long corridors with lots of false starts along the way. And pictures of huge blocks of stone (which she remembered might weigh as much as an elephant [ie 3 tons]) on wooden sledges being pulled up an incline plane (thank you Sid the Science Kid) that was lined with wooden planks.

It was a nice way to spend 45 minutes while we waited for swim class.

Then in swim class ... Sayer *ROCKED!*

She's been getting better and better at floating and the other exercises they do in class, but it's never been something she tried on her own for fun while waiting for her turn with the instructor (there are 3 kids in her class, so they do group activities, then one-on-one things, then more group, then more individual ...). Today she decided to try going under water on her own. And then she did more of it. And then when it was her turn she did her front float for several seconds beyond what they require to move her up to the next level. Now, this wasn't a perfect front float, as she was holding her nose with one hand, but it was a HUGE step. And when the instructor caught my eye through the window and showed me his hands above the water while she floated and he counted, I think his smile was as wide as mine :) And then she did wonderfully again for her back float (though there was a pool noodle under her lower back).

And when it wasn't her turn she went back to playing under the water, not exactly *launching* herself to go forward, but with just enough push when she went under to give her momentum. Twice her momentum took her away from the stairs and into the pool. She is tall enough (just) to stand in that area of the pool, but she's not supposed to leave the stairs when the instructor is working with another student. The first time she was maybe 2 feet away when she realized and reversed herself (without surfacing) and propelled herself back to the stairs. When it happened a second time she was almost a whole body length away from the stairs. Still without surfacing she again reversed herself and began kick/thrashing (one hand was holding her nose, so her arms weren't doing much good at moving her forward) and got back to the stairs. That time, though, the lifeguard came over and talked with her for a couple minutes. At the end of their conversation Sayer said 'okay' and was a bit more cautious in her underwater fun after that.

It was so cool to watch it all begin to click!

So there you have it. We had an unplanned bit of history study, and a fun time at swimming. Had planned to do more school work when we got home, but after her exertions and a trip to the store, Sayer was asleep when we got home and napped for almost 2 hours.

BTW, she's also doing well in dance and gymnastics :)