Swim Lessons with SwimKids

by Tammy Barkey

When I was a kid I took swim lessons in the summer at our hometown’s pool and the lessons ran for several weeks each summer. I never learned how to swim and remained afraid of the water until I finally learned to swim in college.

More recently, a year after the birth of my first child, a friend approached me about putting my daughter in swim class with her child and a couple other kids. It was the Baby and Me class taught by Swimkids. I hesitated, wondering if she was too young to take swim classes, if I would be expected to put Lauren under before she or I were ready, and wondering if she would learn enough to justify the cost of classes.

I looked into it and she was not too young. Babies 12 months or walking can begin lessons. The other two questions were yet to be answered, so I gathered my assertive strength to face the going underwater issue, deciding it would be good for us to have a scheduled activity, and gave it a try. I can’t emphasize enough that I was not pressured at all. The Swimkids swim teacher prepared us in advance, explaining how the lessons would be structured and gave us the option of putting our child under or doing the same steps without putting the child under water. No pressure, we choose, simple as that. And that same, no pressure approach applied each time going under water was a part of the lesson.

I was pleased to be respected to know my child’s comfort level and allowed to let that guide me. Well, Lauren went under water most days, but there were days when it was just did not appeal to her and she did her lesson on top of the water. I watched her learn to hold her breath preparing to go under water. She learned to move herself along the poolside hand over hand holding onto the side of the pool. She was taught to pull herself out of the pool and to lean forward from her shoulders when jumping back in the pool so as to keep her head away from the concrete edge when she enters the water. All these are valuable safety skills for kids who are going to be in and around the water. Seeing the skills she was gaining and watching her have such fun in the lessons while getting confident in the water made the cost a worthwhile investment.

There are several reasons I particularly like Swimkids. The classes are never more than four students to a teacher and there is always a Swimkids staff member on deck to watch over the pool as a back up to the swim teachers keeping the kids safe. Most times that staff member is the owner Vance Rose. The pool temperature is kept at 89 degrees Fahrenheit allowing the kids to focus on lessons and not clinging to parents because they are cold. Since the pool is inside and the program runs year round we keep the girls in swim classes all school year. During the summer we take them to the pool and keep up their skills while enjoying summertime pool play dates. As a mom of multiple children, I appreciate the attention Vance and Karen give to scheduling siblings at the same time. We do have experience with another swim program while away on sabbatical and I found an appreciation for several other aspects of the Swimkids program.

The instructor that teaches during a session is the same teacher for the entire session. The students place their trust in a teacher to keep them safe and changing teachers, for the younger ones in particular, was distracting to the lessons as the child learns to know and trust someone new. At Swimkids, we have had the good fortune of having the same swim instructor for years at a time.

Another positive aspect of Swimkids is the structure of the lessons. Each lesson covers a number of skills that are repeated each time. If a child is unwilling to work on a particular skill it is no big deal because it will be covered in subsequent lessons and eventually learned when the child is ready. Any unwillingness then does not hold the child up from learning other skills in the meantime. The other program we attended did not progress a child to the next skill until the current skill was mastered. With young children, this approach can become a battle of the wills.

That was five years ago and I am currently preparing to enter the water with my third child for her first Baby and Me lessons. My oldest now knows how to swim the American freestyle and is learning the breaststroke. She can float, swim on her back, and swim under water quite well. She still loves lessons and is more skilled at swimming than I am. Her younger sister who is four began lessons at 10 months old just after she began walking. She is even more advanced than her older sister. As I watch my kids’ ability to swim, I am reminded of my childhood and how they will not have to feel the fear I felt each summer going to the pool. Through Swimkids, I have been able to give my children the ability to swim and the gift of enjoying swimming for a lifetime.