It is finally up and running!

The swimming pool is finally up and full of water, it has seemed like a never ending process since taking the pool down last year for our house renovations.  When we took the 20 year old above ground pool down last year we noticed rust at the bottom of the pool preventing it from being reinstalled.  Having had a pool for the last 20 years has been a huge benefit to our family so we decided to replace it.  We were fortunate enough to find a new pool on clearance at the end of last summer that was much larger than the previous pool.  The new pool being much larger wouldn't fit in the same location which meant moving our playground and all the pea gravel and prepping the ground for the pool.  Thankfully one of our sons took it upon himself to move the entire dump truck load of sand and prep the area for the pool.  Setting up the pool did not go quite as planned, my husband has set up a few round pools and felt the oval pool would be similar, IT'S NOT!! The first go around setting up the pool, at a critical part of the installation my husband was attacked by horseflies, in which part of his reaction was letting go of the pool walls and them falling.  The second go around things just wouldn't line up and the third go around the walls were up.  Following the directions for installing the pool liner resulted in the pool collapsing when we had water delivered.  After googling liner installation it was determined the liner was to be installed a different way than described in the instructions.  Not being able to get the liner tight enough and the mounting frustrations we decided to call in a "pool guy".  For starters when you hire a "pool guy" they don't look like any pool guy you ever see on tv.  Secondly although they did a wonderful job of getting our pool ready for water we feel they ripped us off terribly.  They insisted on us paying cash, charging us $200 plus dollars per hour the only fortunate part is that it's up and the frustrations felt by everyone involved are resolved.

The pool has been providing wonderful therapy benefits for the children.  The number one relief is the 7 kids with seizure disorders are able to cool down during the current heat wave limiting their seizures and we are able to closely monitor them while in the pool when it's just us.  Going to the beach or a public pool with 7 kids experiencing seizures and 1 adult just isn't viable.  One of our children with autism has been so engaged when in the pool, interacting and giving excellent eye contact that we have been working on her therapy homework/goals while in the pool and getting tremendous results.  The children with mobility issues have been experiencing great freedom and mobility in the water.  We have multiple balls and toys in the pool encouraging the children to reach for toys, kick or toss balls etc to build strength, enhance body awareness and increase their gross motor skills.    I have read that water provides 30x more pressure on the body than air and we have noticed that it has a huge regulating benefits to our children with sensory issues.

Success at Swimming with Sensory Stimulation

Shopping at Costco recently I came across swimsuits that are perfect for my daughters who have sensory issues and still wear diapers.  The best part is they only cost $15, not an extreme "special needs" price.  Finding swimsuits that work for special needs can be a challenge and coming across these for such a reasonable price was enough to make me do a "happy dance".

I love these swimsuits because they are 2 piece making it easier for the girls to pull the bottoms down when we are working on toileting and the fact that the shorts style modestly covers their diaper.  The short sleeve surfer style shirts are snug and calming, stylish and also provide UV protection when in the sun, which is huge for my very fair skinned children.  The boys also wear surfer style shirts to help them with calming along with their swim shorts.

The new swimsuits got me thinking about swimming and the many challenges for children with sensory issues and other special needs.  It seems like my bunch want to make sure we experience it all when it comes to swimming challenges so I have had to come up with some ways to deal with things.

So much motor planning is required for swimming and when this is a difficulty you may need to find an instructor who can break down the strokes and teach in a way that your child learns.  Private lessons may be required as a group lesson may just be too much.  For us we have been doing weekly private lessons for the last year and a half and for some the progress is extremely slow.

I don't know about you but I find swimming pools to be extremely loud quite often and the experience can sometimes be overwhelming.  The running, squealing, splashing and the noise of all the water features can be a lot for people with auditory and visual processing challenges.  When we go swimming we try to find quiet times to avoid a lot of the additional stimulation but have found ear plugs for swimming and goggles that are tinted can also be helpful for these situations.

The temperature of the water can also be a challenge, quite often my kids are happy in the tot pool as it's warmer than the main pool which is often too cold for them.  Also getting their face wet is a big challenge for a couple of the children, so we play a lot of games working up to this and hoping to desensitize them both at the pool and in the bathtub at home.

If we are swimming anywhere but the pool, water shoes are also required, if I want the child to move at all.  I confess, for my child that is extremely busy and likes to run, it is a benefit him having these issues as it tends to slow him down.  The textures on their feet walking on sand or rocks is enough to put an end to the day for the others.

Another issue can be the chlorine that they treat the water with, the smell and the way that it effects their eyes can really make some people uncomfortable.  One solution is finding a pool that treats their water with ozone as opposed to chlorine.

Homeschool wrap up

We have been continuing along with our schooling and are wrapping up a few of our courses having completed and met the curriculum goals.  Each homeschool year we put a heavy push on the academic courses at the beginning of the school year with the goal of finishing some early so we can switch our focus throughout the year.  Language arts and math continue for the entire school year as they tend to be a challenge for some and my thought is if the kids can be stronger in these then learning in other subjects will be made easier.

We start the week with swimming lessons for some, we have 3 instructors and 1 assistant teaching 7 of the children and an added bonus they have the whole pool to themselves.  We are very fortunate to have this set up and we are seeing some nice progress.  With the more compromised children there is a heavy focus on safety which is really important as we live so close to the water.  2 of the girls have been making great progress and are now swimming lengths of the pool.

While we swim 2 of the others are focused on language arts and math with their education assistants.  The teens are also wrapping up science and car maintenance just studying for the final exams and will be so relieved when they are complete.  Car maintenance was a community class with their peers and is being replaced with interior design another community class which hopefully will be just as interesting.  The teens have also been taking a variety of one day community classes with their peers including food safe, WHMIS, science labs, snowboarding etc.

4 of the kids have been learning to sew and just finished making boxer shorts.

Tuesday is therapy day which amounts to an insane amount of therapy appointments, schooling in the vehicle, walks through the forest and playing on the playground at the park.  Each day at home we are also working on our therapy homework with the help of the kids education assistants.

We have been working on our baking skills and enjoying the added snacks we have created.

We are studying the life cycle of salmon again this year as we raise 100 salmon eggs to the fry stage.  Our salmon eggs have been hatching in the last few days and are now at the alevin stage.

For art the younger children have been working through the Home Art Studio program and thoroughly enjoying it.  They have been learning about prime colours and mixing them.  Also they have been learning how to handle a paintbrush and how to get different effects while painting - straight strokes and swirling strokes.  The art work they have been doing is also helping to reinforce some of the scissor skills that their occupational therapist has been working on with them.

All of the children have been learning sign language at varying levels dependent on their abilities.  Sign language is also very helpful for the children with speech challenges as it is another clue in trying to understand what they are saying.

The bulbs that we planted in the fall have sprouted and have encouraged us to plan our spring gardening program.  We recently bought some seeds to start inside and have ordered seed catalogs to plan our garden.  The teens will be working with Dad building more garden beds and designing a sprinkler system while the younger kids will be focusing on planting.

When traditional swimming lessons aren't enough

The kids have been busy learning to swim which has been proving to be a very labor intensive endeavor for some.  Learning to swim has always been a priority for our family especially since we live at a lake.

With many of our kids they took swimming lessons each summer of their childhood in the lake.  Our community has a section of the lake that is like a "pool" with a wharf around it, a slide, diving boards and life guards/instructors. At the beginning of summer each year the water was always freezing cold so the children would have hot chocolate after each class and by the end of summer you had trouble getting them out of the water.

For some they also participated in a recreational swim team during the fall/winter/spring at a local indoor pool. Practicing weekly for 2 plus hours each session really increased their swimming skills.  We would also visit different public pools for family swimming.  With all this swimming all but one became very competent swimmers and then we adopted our sibling group of 7 which are proving for us that swimming is a challenge.
We have needed to change how we have been teaching swimming as we have 8 children struggling to learn.  Our almost 19 year old has been taking multiple sessions of lessons every year for 13 years now and still struggles to get across the width of the pool.  When she gets tired she just stops swimming, she does not have a fight or flight reflex so when combined she stops swimming, she sinks to the bottom of the pool and then needs to be rescued.  Unless she has someone directly with her she must wear a life jacket so she can happily bob along in the water.

The other 7 children all have uncontrolled seizure disorders along with a multitude of other challenges and are still relatively young.  Of this group the 5 that are being home schooled plus their almost 19 year old sister are currently taking semi private swim lessons.  With a few phone calls (actually quite a few) we were blessed to secure the ultimate lesson set up for this group.  Our 6 children (assuming they haven't had a seizure yet that day) are the only people in the pool with their 3 instructors.  This set up has been working amazingly well as the kids are being well supported, they aren't as overwhelmed as they would be at a busy pool and they are having fun with the hope of learning how to swim.

When planning activities for your child (especially if they have special needs) think outside of the box.  If something isn't working talk to people and see if you can find a solution that works.  Don't give up keep trying!  Please comment and let me know of different solutions that you have come up with for things that weren't working for your child.

shared at http://www.growinghomeblog.com/growing-homemakers-link-141-2/
http://cornerstoneconfessions.com/2014/04/t2t-linkup-98.html
http://abidingwoman.com/
http://http://teachingwhatisgood.com//
www.aboverubies.ne