A Year at Goldfish Swim School
We have just completed a full year at Goldfish Swim School, and my goodness my baby has come so far with her skills in the water. She has gone from crawling across to walking across the floating mat, and from clinging to Mom or Dad in the water to briefly leaving her parent’s arms to begin exploring the pool independently.
Yes, my daughter probably would have learned to walk without the support from Goldfish swim lessons, but there are a few areas of her development that I am convinced would not have progressed as quickly without the support of Goldfish. For the following reasons, I will be forever grateful to Goldfish Swim School.
Building my child’s confidence. With the routine of weekly swimming lessons, my daughter knew what was expected of her. From arrival to the facility to the final goodbye song, my daughter knew what to expect. From the consistency of the facility and the organization of the swim lessons, my daughter was able to focus on building her motor skills in the pool rather than worrying about what was to come next.
Increasing her language abilities. Consistent swim lessons have provided my daughter with exposure to a new vocabulary that she probably would not have been exposed to outside of the pool. She was expected to follow directions involving equipment in the pool and specific body parts. I could see the little wheels of her brain turning when she was asked to “pull her arms,” “kick her feet,” and “catch a bubble.”
Introducing water safety skills. Teaching a toddler water safety seems like a daunting task. She doesn’t understand how powerful water can be, and it’s difficult to reason with a child that age. Goldfish does a wonderful job of training these toddler’s to know what to do with her body if she were to fall into water. My daughter practiced falling in the water and flipping on her back or reaching for the wall for safety. That way if she were to accidentally fall in water one day, the safety skills that we practice in our weekly lessons will kick in from motor memory.
We will be taking a little break from swim lessons as we acclimate to a new house and new daycare (and a new job for Mommy). I am saddened to be putting our lessons on hold seeing how much she LOVES swimming at Goldfish and how much she is benefitting from the weekly lessons. But, one comfort is that Goldfish has two locations in Columbus, so even though we’ve moved further away from the Dublin location, we can be back in the water at the Westerville location soon.
The Details: We are currently in the Goldfish Mini 2 class at Goldfish Swim School. We attend lessons at the Goldfish Swim School in Dublin, Ohio. Check out the link for location, address/telephone details and how to sign up for lessons.
Disclaimer: We were provided free swimming lessons by Goldfish Swim School in exchange for collaborating blog posts. All thoughts and opinions are my own.