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...

Homeschooling on Croton (River that is...)

We took a test run in my birthday present! We were not brave enough to try it out on the Hudson, though. We picked the relatively calm Croton River, instead.

Here's Kevin figuring out how to inflate our Sea Eagle Kayak, and getting it ready for its maiden voyage, and Mikro posing in it:



And this is all I could get, photo-wise, with my cheap underwater camera (I was not willing to risk my good camera!), which doesn't exactly have a wide angle lens. Looking forward, we have the top of Mikro's hat and Kevin's back. To the side, there's the water. Mikro was sitting in the bottom of the boat, basically between my legs, with his feet up on the gunnels. Kev had the front seat, and I was in the stern, mostly helping steer, and paddling as much as I could, which was not full time. Yeah, it hurts. A gimpy old arthritic woman with a crunched spine probably has no business even attempting this. Kevin had to practically lift me out of the kayak, I was locked up so bad. I am paying for it in pain and lost mobility... BUT... I had a great time being on the water, and I'll do it again! (Definitely not when we have to be somewhere the next day...)

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!

Silver Lake With Friends

Yesterday, our friends T and E came swimming with us at our local swimming hole. Mikro and E had a blast together, and we all enjoyed the water. T and I even got to enjoy some mom time chatting while our boys played in the sand and played catch and wrestled with the off duty life guards. It was the perfect place to spend a hot day, with the perfect company.

Beachy Goodness

Despite both Mikro and I developing summer colds (boo, hiss), we have managed to get to the beach several days this week. I am already mourning the end of the season, which is bearing down on us waaay too fast. Don't know how I will cope without my daily dose of riverside serenity...

Beach Bums

I guess you could call us beach bums... We are at the beach at least 4 times a week, sometimes more.

Swim lessons ended, but Mikro begged me to sign him up for the next and last session, so I did. He has graduated to Level 3, but he seems rather tentative about the new skills he's being taught... Sometimes it takes him a while to warm up. Unfortunately, since there are only 8 classes a session, time feels like it is flying by. He has progressed a tremendous amount, but it's hard for me not to want to see him take it even further. Today, he hung back on the sidelines a bit. I'm trying not to push, but I did stress that he needs to participate more. I don't expect perfection, but I do want to see effort.

Unfortunately, it will take even longer for him to find his groove, since we have to miss tomorrow because we have a fun field trip we have been looking forward to, scheduled before Mikro wangled more lessons out of me...





We are actually getting a fair amount done, homeschool-wise, but that's another post...

Summer Fun