The Hulett swim program had 34 participants for swimming lessons at the Belle Fourche Rec Center this year. We endured the ride from Hulett each day with our wonderful bus driver Amber Kaplan, and a couple parent volunteers who joined each day to keep kids safe as they traveled.
Our swimmers were broken into several groups to target specific skills they needed. The Quackers worked on skills such as floating on their back with help, putting their face in the water, blowing bubbles and in general just getting comfortable with being in the water.
Level ones learn to float for five seconds unaccompanied on their front and their back, learn new types of strokes, again increase their comfortability with the water and many other skills. The skills progress to level five where students work on diving, life-saving skills, and more.
The Rec Center schedule for the last couple of years has initial testing, where they pre-assess student abilities to make sure they are in the correct level for targeted skill lessons, several days of lessons at the correct level, and a safety video.
This year, the last day was used as family swim-along day, and families could join kids in free swim after students have been tested at their current level to determine if they earned the opportunity to move up a level the following year.