Sink or swim?

Today I finally got round to booking swimming lessons for Isabel. We used to do lessons when she was a baby but haven't done anything structured for more than a year now, so I'm pleased I've finally managed to book something up. It's been quite hard to do somehow - times are restricted, especially since she'll be at school full-time after half-term, and classes book up really quickly. They're also expensive, or so it seemed to me - £108 for a 12 week course. Since she could in theory do four courses in a year, the thought of the annual cost made me pause briefly. However, I then found out that children in the UK only start school swimming lessons in Year 6, which is when they're 9 or 10. The thought of her being unable to swim until that age is just scary, so I grasped the credit card more firmly and took the plunge (sorry, dreadful pun, couldn't resist).

I hope the classes aren't too advanced for her though, it would be terrible to put her off swimming at this early age. I loved swimming as a child and still do - I probably used to be in the pool at least three and sometimes five days a week until I was about 11. Then the real school work started, and my promising synchronised swimming career was cut short. Don't laugh - I could have been a contender! Not true really, but it was fun (except the pool at the Angel Islington which was so cold that I never managed to get warm, even swimming at full speed). The squad I was in did a display at the opening of a new pool once, an event I still remember clearly - it was in the days before hair gel had been invented, and we had to use gelatine to slick our hair back with. Mine took a lot of slicking.

So, in a couple of weeks' time I'll be taking her to the pool and entrusting her into the care of another. Will she sink or swim? Watch this space later in Feb...