Kids Arranged Activities

Swimming lessons: Our kids participated in 2 out of 3 weeks of swim-classes on the island. Each class was 45 minutes long and consisted of a warm up on land to music playing on a portable music player, then instructions about safety and then practice of the breaststroke leg and arm movements. It was difficult with the cold water...it ranged from 17 degree celsius to about 20 degrees. My friend Karoline was the instructor and her two daughters Pauline and Felicia were her assistants. Karoline and I attended Preschool and Kindergarten together up through 8th grade. The kids loved her and particularly enjoyed the warmup to Swedish kid music. The swim-classes were held at the beach right where we live and continued in most any weather except for poring rain. The main focus of the swim-lessons, once children pass dipping their heads under water and actually getting into the cold water is to teach them breast stroke and floating. Some kids get in the water as if it was 25 degrees and don’t seem phased by the cold at all. Elsa would usually get in, but was tense and would not relax her shoulders, although I give her credit for getting in at all considering she is used to an indoor pool. Vincent would usually be the last to get in the water and even then not long enough or not fully submerge himself. My kids were one of the few wearing wetsuits and still they seemed the coldest. Karoline and her daughters showed such patients with the kids and I am impressed with their positive and encouraging attitudes. Karoline was also extremely flexible with the kids schedule and kindly adjusted them to a later time so that I could enroll them in the last week of tennis classes. 

One thing about swim classes here that I enjoyed tremendously as a kid is the possibility of earning marks (little brass pin of different designs). From the youngest age to old, and during the three weeks of swim lessons, one can show up to the ‘mark taking’ time of day which is usually right after all the lessons are over. The instructor has a board which she attaches a flyer showing all the different marks one can pursue. Each mark has specific requirements, the easiest consisting of dipping your face three times, your whole head and then jumping off into the water three times.  It cost 30 kroner and she was very proud.  Vincent wanted to earn one too, but could never get himself to actually do it. The marks are great motivators and once a kid knows how to swim, you no longer need the lessons and simply pursue more challenging marks. The most difficult marks requires one to travel to a pool in order to assure the depth and distances required for some of the marks. The more difficult marks cost more than the easier ones.

There is something unique about taking swim-lessons in the open water. The kids have to deal with the various weather, cold temperatures and then also get used to the seaweed, kelp, rocks, shells and sea animals...the orange jellyfish being the most common and most scary for kids since its threads sting. The presence of jellyfish vary day to day and depends on the quality of the water...when the water is more salty, the jelly fish are abundant...when the water is less salty and has more river water, the jelly fish disappear (the locals say, ‘älv van for river water. The river, called, ‘Göta Kanal’ runs into the waters here from the mainland across from where we are.

Tennis: The island has two outdoor tennis courts right by the water, near where we live. I signed up for Tennis lessons for the whole family including my mom who had never tried it before. The weather prediction however, was not good for that week and so we cancelled. The lessons are extremely cheap, 400 kronor for an adult and only 200 kronor for a child for a whole week of a one hour lesson Monday through Friday. If the weather was bad then the weather was bad and the lesson would be cancelled or one might just do warm-ups together. No refunds are offered. Considering how slippery the tennis court becomes when it gets wet, Tony with bad knees was worried about slipping and for sure I was worried about my mom slipping at her age of 69. Now it so happened that the weather did get nice about half week through and I am sure that it would have been a great experience. When Tony and I showed up for the first lesson, it was sprinkling and I was thinking that the class would be cancelled, but there were 5 eager adults waiting to learn and play and with much more positive attitudes than Tony and I. They seemed hopeful that the weather would clear and they went about warming up as if it would. Tony and I stood there sort of in disbelief that they were still going to attempt to warm up on the wet court and with negative attitudes I must admit, we informed the coach that we would withdraw. I think we should have stayed. I think we would have had a great experience and it would have been an opportunity to get to know some new people.

Soccer Summer Camp: A summer soccer camp is usually offered week 31, and the weather is usually great that week. We signed up Vincent and Elsa and my brother Mark and his wife Sara signed up their four year old daughter, Victoria. They all started at 10 am Monday through Friday that week and the youngest ones which included Vincent and Victoria only practiced for about one hour and the older kids played for two. For the youngest group, they had two coaches that were great with the kids. One of the coaches is my cousin, Håkan (Hoecan), whom I don’t know all that well, but he was really sweet with the kids and spoke English with our kids whenever they seemed to have missed an instruction. For the two youngest groups the soccer camp consisted of playing various games. The favorite game was one called, “Cowboys och Indianer”. They would set up a rectangle with cones and then the kids would run across the rectangle while the coaches would kick the ball across perpendicularly and try to hit the kids legs with soccer balls and if they got hit they would be out. 

Also I want to note that interesting enough our kids including Victoria (my brothers child from AZ) had the most difficult time with the heat this week of soccer camp. They were winy and hot and struggled with attention and participation because they thought it was too warm. 

On the final day of camp they had a small ceremony, after serving all the kids grilled hot dogs and buns and a juice box. They called each child's name to acknowledge their good effort as the child walked up to receive a t-shirt with the organizations name on it. It was clear that the kids enjoyed this ceremony with their big smiles.  

Elsa after receiving her t-shirt and praise from her coach

Victoria, Elsa and Vincent wearing their new T-shirts