swimming lessons, why choose Goldfish Swim School

Water Safety Week: Why Invest In Swimming Lessons

This post is part of a collaboration with Goldfish Swim School. Thank you for learning about the companies that support Motherhood Through My Eyes.

Living in South Florida means you’re surrounded by large bodies of water. Swimming lessons seem like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised to hear that there are families who fear it would be too much of an investment.

Finding the right swim school for your child means research, and that’s okay. There are other parents who’ve already taken the plunge to invest in swimming lessons and can offer recommendations.

Teaching Your Child On Your Own

Investing in swimming lessons doesn’t just mean monetary. In fact, time and attention are two important factors in learning how to swim. It all depends on your child’s needs.

When our firstborn started his first swimming lesson at Goldfish Swim, he told the instructor he knew how to swim. So, his instructor asked our son to show him.

Although our five-year-old has had swimming lessons from my husband in the past and is confident in the water, it’s important for us to have him swimming with little to no assistance.

At our local Goldfish Swim, our firstborn has been able to perfect his technique and show his younger brother how important it is to pay attention to your instructor and follow through with the lessons. After all, they’re life-saving instructions!

Teaching our second-born how to swim on our own was out of the question. He requires more attention and patience, something you need to have more of when you’re trying to help someone overcome their fears.

Our firstborn showing off his skills.

Signs Its Time To Invest In Swimming Lessons

Swimming has always been a skill we wanted to introduce to our three children, but how can you give all three the attention they require all at once? You can’t.

We knew it was time to invest in swimming lessons for our firstborn when he kept mentioning how confident he felt in the water. Unfortunately, we weren’t 100% confident with him being in the water on his own. With two others in the water, it always felt almost impossible to keep an eye on his progress. We kept him in a floatie longer than we should’ve out of fear.

As for our three-year-old, we noticed he would rely heavily on inflatables, and felt comfortable enough to go into the water without them on numerous occasions. Seeing him confidently walk into the water the second time and realize he almost drowned was what we needed to consider swimming lessons.

The first story time event at the Goldfish Swim School in Pembroke Pines

Tips For Nervous Moms

Like anything changes in life, there’s always a number of what-ifs that come to mind. Personally, I questioned whether or not swimming lessons were actually torture for our kids. Our firstborn loved it, and continued to excel in it every week. As for the other two? There were a lot of tears and yelling from our three-year-old.

Our three-year-old during one of his first lessons.

With time, all three have been able to get accustomed to the idea. Of course, there are moments when they would rather go down for a nap than to listen to someone telling them to kick and pull, but there are ways around those feelings. Below are three tips on how we’ve been able to combat these emotions:

  1. Dress them before you arrive. Wearing their bathing suit will get them excited about going to their swimming lessons. We like to ask them whether or not we have everything we need. This helps them get involved in the preparation process.
  2. Arrive 10-20 minutes before schedule. Heading to swimming lessons beforehand can make a big difference for your child. We started doing one hour in advance and recently brought it down to 10-20 minutes before class. The kids like the make use of the time at Goldfish Swim School and pick up books for us to read together.
  3. Reward them for their hard work. Goldfish Swim School gives you rewards after every lesson. We also like to let the boys each choose two pieces of candy from the front desk.

How are you celebrating Water Safety Week?



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