Swimming Test - Gold Stage

It was finally D day after all the hard work. We didnt want the kids to tire out before the test and arrived just slightly earlier. Even with just minutes to spare, they were soon waddling in the lazy river until we fished them out for the test.

Coach Alex arrived and got the kids ready for the test. They had to use a swimming cap for easy identification.

They dived into the pool and did 2 laps of front crawl, followed by 2 laps of breaststroke, then backstroke and finally 2 laps of survival backstroke. Coach Alex said that the laps have to be continuous. While it probably sounded like chicken feet to us, it isnt for the kids, considering that they are half our size.

Lil Shauna and C were definitely much stronger swimmers than Zaky. Despite him starting off 1st, the jiejies soon caught up and were ahead of him in no time. Then the 1st boo boo came. Zaky was in a hurry to continue with his 3rd lap and had forgotten to switch to breaststroke. Zzzzzz. I was worried that he would need to do an extra lap but he wasnt ask to.

I was more anxious than the kids while watching them swim, unlike Daddy Lim, who was totally cool about it. Finally, they were done with the 8 laps, which I think was the most difficult task in the test. I asked the kids if they were tired, which Zaky replied no, but his head was itching so badly bcos of the swimming cap. Lol.

Part 2 of the swimming test was to don the PJs, swim a lap and then attempt to remove them while treading water. Then to put on the life vest and swim for another lap. By then, the kids were really exhausted and took a breather, hanging on their life vest before swimming in it. Even Lil Shauna said that she was tired.

The last part of the test was to save a drowning person using a float. They took turns to pretend to drown. The life saving part came with a dialogue and it was so funny.

Drowning person (DP): Help!
Lifeguard (LG): Hello, hello, do you need help?
DP: Yes.
LG: Don't worry, I will come and save you.

Then the "lifeguard" will take his/ her own sweet time and sit on the edge of the pool and swim out with the kick board to save the drowning person. If it is reality, the chances of the drowning person surviving would be so slim. Haha. By this part of the test, the kids were starting to play and laugh; all the earlier anxiousness had disappeared.

Zaky did fine too for the final part but just that he had to "save" jiejie and complained that she was too heavy. Lol. With that, the test was finally completed.

The results? They all PASSED!! Woohoo!

The kids would be resuming the swimming lessons this afternoon. Hahaha. We could have stopped but the kids had wanted to learn butterfly stroke. We agreed to continue so long as C is continuing.

Coach Alex was very encouraging and sent a congratulating message in the evening. He mentioned that Zaky is his youngest student to pass the gold stage and how the kids always had so much fun and laughter during swimming classes. Well, he had to bcos there is a huge possibility that we would stop the classes. Then again, the kids love him.

After all the classes for the day, we headed to Decathelone to purchase a few items for the upcoming Bintan trip - snorkelling masks. The kids had the full face masks and were eager to test out once we were home. Passed!

Mummy Lim