Sunsational Swim School Provided us for three hour-long lessons in return for a review… and hopefully getting Red to swim!
I grew up going to the pool at least 4 days a week during the summer. It may have been a short season those 7 chilly years in New Jersey, but my Mom always packed up the same pool bags and we walked down to the little clubhouse and swam like fishes until she roped us out and back home. I learned how to dive, to deftly pitch a nerf ball, and even lost of my first opal earring in the shallow end (and learned never to wear good earrings swimming!). As Red has come to the age where swimming is a necessary and technique is a learned skill (I think that infant rescue swimming lessons are awesome, too!), he needs a little help. Chase has done his best to get Red acquainted with the water, holding his breath, choo-chooing along the edge, submerging and popping up, but we can’t quite get him to tread water, or take a breath while going forward. This has left him resting on the deck chairs every so often to catch his breath and let me tend to Scarlett and other matters instead of letting him paddle around in the shallow end attended.
So since we weren’t fully successful in getting him to learn to swim, what to do? The nearest aquatic center was merely with the gym, and swimming lessons from a private instructor (with no other kids at the same level) were hard for me to find. Plus, we have a pool in our neighborhood… So, we found a way to have swimming lessons at home. The Sunsational Swim School offered us a few lessons for Red to learn to swim with a private coach who would evaluate his level, customize some activities and hopefully, get him a little further to self-sufficient swimming.
Our first lesson was filled with “tests” to see what Red knew, and to check his skills. Our swim teacher, Coach Laila, arrived at our neighborhood pool ready to go, with a few swimming toys (a reward for good listening during the lesson) as well as a boogie board to help practice kicks. All we needed was our towel and Red’s favorite pair of goggles. Coach Laila was very patient with Red, and even picked up on a few parenting skills I use when I was introducing them and asking Red to use his “listening ears” during the lesson.
Sunsational Swim School gave us three hour-long lessons, to pack the sessions into a shorter period of time, but by the end of the first lesson Red was exhausted. I know he would have had a better attention span with their 30 minute option followed by a snack break and maybe a play session with Chase and I in the pool to practice his new skills and release his tension. I hope that after our second and third lessons Red is swimming like a fish! After all, he has NO fear of the water….
I wish we had a pool to be able to do this! My kiddos would love it, they did swimming lessons but didn’t get much from it because they weren’t private and they were in classes. Would love this!
I grew up swimming all the time too. My girls just had their first swimming lessons this year. I love that they came to you for private lessons.
How cool! Being able to take lessons at home should definitely help reluctant swimmers! The personal attention is great.
Learning to swim and be confident in the water is so important. How wonderful that your son was able to have the experience in a comfortable location.
How convenient! This sounds like the perfect way to help people get swimming. I’d definitely consider it.
Private swim lessons are the way to go. My daughter learned in only 4 lessons!
We have place sort of like this in our area and our girls loved it. It’s where they learned how to swim and was super helpful for our gal who was scared of the water. She now LOVES to swim.
What a great idea, I am so nervous of the idea of teaching my sons alone. I really want them in swimming lessons this year!
What a neat way to do things – I love seeing people teaching their kids to swim, very important part of swimming safety for sure!
Oh wow how awesome would it be to have swim lessons at home, I have to admit it would be my dream to have my own pool. x
Go RED GO!!! What a great experience for him. Looks like he had a good time. When I lived in Oklahoma swimming was a must during the summer. Now that I am in MI, it takes me a bit longer to swim because even though its warm out, that doesn’t mean that lake water is warm! LOL
I think everyone should learn how to swim when they are little. It is such an important skill to learn. I had no idea you could get lessons at home.
We used to go to the pool everyday when I was a child as well. I think knowing how to swim is a critical skill to have. It may save your life someday 🙂
It’s good to see that you took time to train him right. Swimming is fun, but it can be really dangerous if not properly trained.
We too believe swimming is a non optional survival skill and learned quickly that group lessons don’t give enough personal attention. Our kids are now teens, swim on swim teams, snorkel and are very competent swimmers. I believe those early lessons are the reason.
This is such an awesome thing! I know that a lot of kids don’t like the pressure of being around a lot of other kids.
My kids normally take swimming lessons during the summer. Even though they can swim, it’s nice to freshen up their skills and reacquaint themselves with the water. It would be so great to be able to do that from home.
What a cool idea! I love the thought of an instructor coming out to teach the kids to swim. That’s fantastic.
My two were taught to tigger bounce on the bottom if they fell in. They could bounce up to get air and bounce all the way to the shallow end until they were confident. We also worked on back floating before anything else in order to have a safe way to wait for help.
I like that method! I used to do that for fun in our deep-ended pool!
Now this is a really neat idea! I have to get my son swim lessons soon too!
Thanks so much for all the valuable info. you were told that how we got swimming at home is very effective and suitable every person. there many Long Island Swimming School in the world. and many are perfectly taught in a week.
You are welcome! Happy Summer!
waste of time
Thanks for your comment!