A little something to read if this is the first swimming lesson experience for your child and what to do to help them before they even get here!

It is very normal and more likely then not, when they are very young children (usually 2 to 3 years old and younger) that they will cry on the 1st few days of their 2 week session. This is usually because anything  having  to do with water, such as bath time, swimming or the beach, has only been with family or they may not ever have been away from you before. Even if they love the water, they do not know us or trust us yet, but after 2 or 3 days  of lessons they will stop crying once they are comfortable with us. There is no way around this. Believe us, we've tried it all! 

On the 1st days that they are crying, please try not to sit there holding them in your arms, talking so much about the swimming. Talk about anything else, they're favorite book, dvd, what you're going to do later! You are just causing them more stress by reminding them about what's about to happen. Years and years ago, we had the parents in the pool area  for all of the classes. We found this to be a waste of your time and money. We also felt that the children were not getting the most out of the classes. Every few minutes, they wanted to get out and go to you, it also took us days longer to get them happy when you were there.

We really are doing everything we can here, to make sure that your children get quality lessons and learn how to swim. No matter how you look at it, they are not very happy with us the 1st few days. This is because we've just taken them away from you and they are mad, sad and don't like us right now! When we bring them back out to you after their class, do not rush to pick them up if they're crying and do the "oh poor baby" thing. This should only be done when they get a booboo. By doing this, you have just made their lesson in to something bad. Just tell them how proud you are and ignore the crying!! It helps to do it this way, it really does! Susie has been doing this for well over 30 years now with her mother Ann and it works! We've never advertised. It's all been word of mouth. That says something about what we do right there! So please just put your trust in us and our staff.

Here are a few things that you can do in your pools and tubs to get them ready before their lessons:

Pour the water on their heads in the tub. Just remember and know that you are not hurting them by doing this. In fact you are helping them. Also, try not to tell them to close their eyes every time water comes near. We know this is hard because of the shampoo, but try to have them tilt their heads back or something. You don't want them to think that it's the water that will hurt their eyes! Yes, there might be some yelling and temper tantrums, but as I'm sure you're aware, drowning is a horribly silent thing. Let them see you pour water on your head. Also let them see you going under water! You are helping them by doing this because if they were to fall into a pool and had never had water on their faces, they will panic, and more than likely close their eyes and freeze up and not try to help themselves at all. If you let them think that water on their heads or in their eyes is something to be afraid of, you are hindering and lessening their chances of survival, not helping them at all.

Do not make the deep end of a pool into a monster. Water does not have to be deep for a child to drown. If you are always yelling "stay away from the deep end", you are creating a scary place and a panic situation by doing so. Until they know how to swim, it makes no difference what depth the water is. 

Outside of the pool

As soon as they start to walk, let them! Don't carry them all the time. The more balance and coordination they have outside of the pool, the more it will help them inside of the pool. Even before they can walk, strengthen their muscles by holding on to things, gripping things. If they fall in to a pool, before ever taking lessons, you want them to be strong enough to hopefully at least hold on to the edge or pull themselves physically up above water on the steps.

Words not to say in front of them!!!!!!!!

No matter what age they are, do not to say in conversation in front of them, how afraid they are, how terrified they are, how scared they are of the pool, etc.They hear you and if you say these types of things, they are going to be and do what you say because you are the parent and they believe what you say! I can't stress how important this is! For example, if you say they don't like broccoli, the next time it's offered to them, they are going to say they don't like it because you said so! It really is just using common sense, that's all!

Flotation devices

Try not to use water wings, arm floats, float suits, etc. Except of course a life jacket on a boat! All of these actually do not help because they can give your kids a false sense of security and they might jump into a pool without them on, thinking they can swim.

If they were to fall into a pool without them, they may not even try to get out because they are in such a panic. All that they are thinking is that they don't have them on and they might just shut their eyes, freeze up and maybe not do a thing.

This also applies to goggles and masks. It is okay to let them wear them as long as they understand that it is alright to swim and open their eyes under water without them on.

You do not want them to fall into a pool and shut their eyes and not know where the edge is! This can be just as dangerous as not knowing how to swim.

Hopefully by doing these things you will help them learn to swim that much faster.

Remember,there is water every where in South Florida!