Last Beach Days and Great Blue Herons

We had our last beach day a couple weeks ago, and Mikro made a new friend. We also saw Great Blue Herons on each of our last few days at Silver Lake, and have been seeing an enormous number of them along the shores of the Hudson River this September, more than I can remember ever seeing before. On train trips into the city, we have seen as many as 10 of them lining the riverbanks between our village and Tarrytown station.

Swim Lessons

Mikro is taking Level 3 swim lessons, and learning new strokes. He's got a strong but messy front crawl, a ridiculously fast, powerful, but slightly sloppy back stroke, the beginnings of a breast stroke, and he can do the scissor as well as anyone I've ever seen (which is funny, because it figures prominently in my dad's tales of his navy shenanigans...)

Today's lesson was rained out (thunderstorms, actually), but here is a look at our lovely swimming hole on the Croton River:



























Mikro is serious about improving his strokes, but verbal instructions take a while to be translated into physical movements where he's concerned. So he is extremely willing, but not at the level of precision he wants to be yet. And he aims high. He has his eyes set on that lifeguard's chair, and watching the Olympics has sparked an interest in maybe swimming in competition some day...

My, How Time Flies!

Summer is fast fading into autumn, and our beach days are numbered...







Here's Mikro practicing to be a life guard. Incredibly, in just 7 short years, he'll be eligible to apply for a job as a junior lifeguard!

(These shots were taken shortly before closing time, when no one was in the water.)

Summer Fun

Our summer is shaping up to be about swimming, reading, and fun field trips. I am horribly behind in posting our adventures because both Kev and I have been taking hundreds of photos, and sorting and editing is a daunting task...

So far, I think Mikro's most favorite Summer 2011 things are:

• Swimming at Silver Lake and playing on the beach and in the water with friends
  
• Luigi's Italian Ices: Banana Chocolate Swirl and Cherry Chocolate Swirl
  
• Time Warp Trio books
  
• Jean Fritz American history stories
  
• The movie Rio, which we finally saw on DVD
  
• Seeing our little hummingbird visitor multiple times
  
• Going to the American Museum of Natural History
  
• Playing with hexbugs
  
• Building a skeleton model
  

Mikro's swimming has really gotten stronger. He has swum across the river (and through the current) to Alligator Rock, and loves swimming all the way out to the far rope on the other side of the jetty. He's jumping off the Diving Board Rock and Alligator Rock (and no longer freaks out when his face gets wet.) In his lessons, there was another kid at close to his level. She is slightly more advanced, and he strove mightily to keep up with her. Having a challenge pushed him forward, and I am thrilled to report that he can now retrieve dive sticks while wearing googles and pinching his nose shut, and can do the dead man's float (face down in the water.) This is huge for him, and I am thinking we may see swimming underwater happen soon! I've enjoyed having Kev around more, especially quiet days where we just hang out together as a family near one of our favorite rivers... And those italian ices. Yum!

Back to the Beach

Mikro was in the water before Kev and I had time to set up the beach chairs. He's a happy little fish. We have swim lessons at the end of July to look forward to, and a long summer of peaceful, quiet beach days. Put me near water and I am content. Mikro definitely inheritted the river loving gene from his mama.



He has announced that when he's a teenager, he wants to be a lifeguard. I'm using that to try to inspire him to really work on his strokes (he's a powerful but sloppy swimmer) this summer... And he's already pitching in and helping the lifeguards clean up at the end of the day...



We had some animal excitement the first day there. A gosling went over the dam, into the fiercely churning white water. It was fine, and was soon reunited with its parents. We also caught sight of a black crowned night heron, standing on the shore and watching the geese drama.





All's well that ends well...

Beachless

Well, it had to happen. Silver Lake is closed for the season. Mikro and I are seriously bereft. Poor Mikro keeps saying he misses the beach, and his friends, the lifeguards. I'm glad we went and said goodbye to everyone, and got in a last swim.

Here are some last day photos:





Soon my peaceful refuge will be a construction site, closed to us even for sitting on the beach and listening to the water. They are replacing the aging dam, which is damaged... Next year, the water will likely be a little deeper, which is fine with me. But I will miss going down there and feeling the stress just melt from my body as I listen to the song of the water over the dam.

Firsts at Silver Lake

Mikro's first:

• Swim all the way out to Diving Board Rock (actually a sunken concrete pylon). This is easily twice as far as Third Rock.
  
• Attempt to shoot a video (of mom jumping off the pylon...)
  
• Sighting of an eel at Silver Lake. (Not on the video.)

This is our last weekend of swimming before the beach closes for the season.

Guess next week I will finally have time to post a big homeschool update, with all that we have been doing academically this summer.

Nature Nearby: Silver Lake Edition

Today Mikro's friend M found 3 crayfish at Silver Lake (which isn't a lake, but rather a calm spot on the river). The boys had fun examining them, and then released them back where they found them. Mikro got pinched once, and was quite surprised. He was completely undeterred, though, and enjoyed watching these critters immensely. We were told by J, Mikro's swim teacher, that they are fairly rare here now, and so the boys were doubly thrilled to have caught several. I'm wondering if this means the river is in better shape this season than it has been. Everyone has noticed that there is far less turbidity this year. The water is as clear as glass...



We had a great swim today. We went to the far side of the rock jetty, and swam out to a huge submerged rock (called "Third Rock"), where we could rest. It's a fairly long swim, with a little bit more current than Mikro is used to (but well out of the main current), and he did really well. The water around the rock is ten feet deep, and I was a little nervous having him out there, but we were with friends, so I decided to let him try it. Glad I did. He had no trouble at all. And he was fine with the concept of just floating if he needed a break, which he didn't. He's got a really powerful kick, and his arm strokes are coming along. Still a bit of flail, but vastly improved over last year. I am impressed by how much he learned this summer!