Salty Sam’s Fun Blog for Children
Number 437
Swimming
Hello Everyone
lf you were really rich, what would you buy yourself?
Would you buy yourself a mansion or private aeroplane?
Maybe you would buy yourself a horse or a racing car.
Zig Zagger the retired pop star who lives in a large mansion at the back of Rocky Bay has a mansion with an outside swimming pool.
Of course, his pool is not as large as the sea outside my lighthouse, but it is a beautiful turquoise colour and always calm – it is so beautiful to look at.
During a hot summer, having an outside pool like that is the height of luxury.
Bill and Bob couldn’t have a swimming pool in their back yard even if they dug it themselves – the yard is much too small. They barely have room for all the vegetables they want to grow!
They went to the Rocky Bay Swimming Pool when they wanted to learn how to swim.
They go to a swimming club there during term time but of course they can go there too during the holidays if they want to.
And if the weather is really nice, we can always go to Sandy Cove to swim in the sea.
Some schools have swimming awards that you can achieve when you attain a certain level of proficiency at swimming. This is a really good incentive for children to improve.
When you are happy that you are good at swimming, you might want to try diving into the water – as long as you know there is enough depth of water to dive into of course.
You wouldn’t want to bang your head on something you can’t see from above the surface of the water.
This can happen in outdoor water like the sea and rivers.
Can you swim?
lt is one of the most useful things a child can learn to do.
Swimming is a superb form of exercise because you can move while the weight of your body is being supported by the water – and don’t you feel heavy when you come out again!
So swimming is especially good if someone is really over-weight and they want to release a lot of weight.
Sometimes, people call their local swimming pool the public baths.
During Victorian Times and Edwardian Times at the beginning of the 20th century, there really were public baths where people went to have a bath.
lf there was a big pool there too, they could take a swim as well.
Some poorer people did not have a bathroom in their house or even water pipes plumbed into their home. So they went to the public baths to have a warm bath – maybe once a week. A cold bath was cheaper.
There were facilities for people to do their laundry as well.
The first public bath and wash house was opened in Liverpool in 1828.
From 1846, local authorities were encouraged to open these sorts of public facilities all over the country using public funding. The government thought it would help to improve public health if people were cleaner.
Most of these building don’t exist today.
There were separate entrances for men and women; just like the changing rooms in the swimming pools of today.
An attendant would run the bath.
Towels, combs, mirrors could be hired for a price.
For people who could afford it, there were Turkish baths where they could go for a sauna and a vigorous soaping down by an attendant.
Some people in the world don’t go to a swimming pool or the beach to swim but prefer swimming in rivers. There may be no beach or swimming pool where they live and the river is the only place to go to swim anyway.
This is called wild swimming.
lt is not recommended for non-swimmers to even attempt to swim in a river.
And anyone wanting to swim along a river, sometimes for a very long way, is advised to know the waters well before attempting it.
A lot of rivers have pollution in them that could poison you, or algae which can set up skin and eye irritations.
Swimming in reservoirs and flooded quarries is not advisable either.
You should never swallow river water or sea water.
Nobody should go wild swimming alone in case they get into difficulties.
There can be strong currents in rivers and in the sea which can sweep you away. You can get your feet tangled up in weeds.
A buoyancy aid can help anyone swim if they are not very strong or good at swimming. Wearing a wetsuit can help keep you warm in chilly waters where you can lose body heat rapidly.
You shouldn’t swim just after eating a very large meal.
lf you are dehydrated – you can get cramps which make swimming difficult.
So if you want a summer adventure in or near the water – please be careful and keep safe.
lf you like my blog, please support it by telling all your friends and followers about it.
Thank you!
And see you again next Fun Friday!
Love and kisses
Salty Sam
www.christina-sinclair.com
Bill and Bob’s Joke of the Week
Bill: Why did the elephants get into trouble when they went to the swimming pool?
Bob: l can’t imagine.
Bill: They kept dropping their trunks!
Bob: Oooooooo!
Salty Sam © Christina Sinclair 2015
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of material from this blog without express and written permission from this blog’s author and owner is strictly prohibited.
Links may be used to www.christina-sinclair.com
Picture Gallery
The swimming pool at Victoria Baths in Manchester –
with changing cubicles at the side
Public Baths
River swimming can be dangerous
THE SALTY SAM NEWS DESK
This week, Miss Pringle said how proud she was of her class sending letters to the Rocky Bay Gazette telling the authorities how they wanted Rocky Bay to be more beautiful and eco-friendly.
She said that the letters had had a good effect.
Everyone had seen how much better the village pond looked this week and it had got her thinking about a new project she could do with the children.
She was going to do a project about water.
She talked about how important water was to us. How people are made of about 70% water and how the world’s surface is about 70% water too.
That is strange, isn’t it?
She said it was important to drink enough water, and told the children how some people in the world didn’t have clean drinking water and that could be very dangerous for their health.
She talked about how some rivers get so polluted sometimes, that fish can die and that was really bad news!
The children said that they loved swimming in the sea at Sandy Cove and it would be terrible if the sea there got polluted.
Miss Pringle agreed.
Then she gave them a picture each and got them to write a story about it.
The pictures would trigger their imaginations.
Some children had pictures of calm lakes in the mountains, some had lakes with patches of mist on them which made them look very eerie, some had powerful waterfalls, some had tropical beaches and some had dark stormy seas.
Then the whole class looked at some poetry about water together.
Then they wrote some of their own poetry.
Then they drew a picture to illustrate their poem
The children thought the whole project was really good fun.
It was much easier to think of a good story when you could see a picture to give you ideas.
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Quick Quiz
These are ways to get across water
- j_t s_i_n_
- w_t_r s_i_n_
- w_i_e_a_e_ r_f_i_g
- y_c_t_n_
- c_n_e_n_
- r_w_n_
- k_y_k_n_
lt’s the Weekend!
HOW TO MAKE SWlMMlNG GEAR FOR CHARACTER DOLLS
The pattern for the children character dolls are on Blog Post 427.
The pattern for their school clothes are there too.
Here we have some more patterns for some swimming gear and a bag for taking books to school.
SWIMMING TRUNKS (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and blue dk yarn cast on 20 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 4 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
- Embroider a little shield on the front of the trunks using a contrasting colour
- Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew front seam
SWIMMING COSTUME (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and blue dk yarn cast on 11 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 10 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
- Embroider a little shield on the front of the costume using a contrasting colour
- Using over-sew stitching and with right sides together sew side seams
- Crochet 15 chains into a length of blue yarn and attach the ends to the top of the front of the costume
TOWEL (KNIT ONE)
Using 4mm knitting needles and navy dk yarn cast on 8 stitches
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Knit 1 row
Knit 2, purl 4, knit 2
Repeat last 2 rows 6 times
Knit 2 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
BOOK BAG (KNIT TWO)
Using 4mm knitting needles and navy dk yarn cast on 7 stitches
Knit 8 rows of stocking stitch
Knit 4 rows of garter stitch
Cast off
TO MAKE UP
- Sew up the bottom and side seams with wrong sides together using over-sew stitching
- Crochet 18 chains into a length of navy yarn (twice) and attach the ends to the top and bottom corners of the bag so that you have a strap each side to go over the doll’s shoulders
Please note that the material on this blog is for personal use and for use in classrooms only.
It is a copyright infringement and, therefore, illegal under international law to sell items made with these patterns.
Use of the toys and projects is at your own risk.
©Christina Sinclair Designs 2015
Quick Quiz Answers
- jet skiing
- water skiing
- whitewater rafting
- yachting
- canoeing
- rowing
- kayaking
White water is water stirred up when it goes over the rocks
A jetski
