How mobile swim lessons work:
For mobile swim lessons, a swim instructor comes to you! Lessons are done in a backyard pool, a community pool, or an apartment complex pool. Lessons are 20-minutes, 30-minutes, or 60-minutes in length. Double check prior to your lesson what timeslot you are signed up for. If we are meeting at your home in a backyard swimming pool, plan to be outside with your little one, dressed and ready to go for swim lessons. You and your swim instructor will correspond prior on how to enter the backyard and share gate codes as needed. If it is an apartment complex or community pool, please plan to be there 5 minutes prior to when your lesson starts.
What to do the day of your first lesson:
Make sure pools are clean and of a comfortable temperature for lessons. If your child has pool toys appropriate for swim lessons (floating toys, sinking toys, noodles) and would like to use them during lessons, they may have those in the pool. Please refrain from having distractions in the pool such as blow up rafts, squirt guns, and large disruptive toys. Confirm that the plans for the day such as nap time and lunch or dinner are scheduled to accommodate swim lessons.
When it's time for your first lesson:
Have your child dressed and waiting by the pool at the time of the lesson. If your child is using goggles during their lesson, please make sure that they fit correctly and only cover their eyes. (No snorkeling masks or goggles that cover the nose!). It is recommended to double check your kiddo doesn't need a potty break before lessons. Once your instructor has arrived, there will be a few minutes of introduction and conversation. For the first lesson, plan for the first 5 minutes to be spent outside of the water having conversations with the parents and children. At this point, we will decide whether it would be best for parents to stay outside or go inside. All parents are more than welcome to stay outside and watch the lesson, many will choose to be "out of sight and out of mind" if they believe that will be helpful for the child. At that point, the swim instructor will enter the water with your child.
Keep in mind, this goes differently for every child. Some children will hop right in with the instructor and the first lesson will be a breeze. Others, not so much. For young kids who have only been in the pool once or twice with their parents, this is a whole new big experience. Swim lessons are not one size fits all! We understand that and work with each child individually. It's important to keep an open mind during all of this. It is possible that children spend the whole first lesson on the steps of the pool. It takes time to build a relationship between swimmer and instructor and we want to do that correctly. I will move at the appropriate pace based on the responses your child is giving me.
Once we start approaching the end of our time, please be prepared with a dry towel ready. If you have chosen to go inside or out of sight for lessons, be mindful of the time so you can come back out as we're finishing up. We'll take a few moments to exchange some notes about the lesson and then I will be on my way to my next swim lesson. If you'd ever like to talk further about what we are working on in lessons, we can always have a text conversation or schedule a phone call!
Next few lessons:
For the next few lessons, I will continue working with your child at their pace while creating a plan for the remainder of lessons. After 4 lessons your child will receive a progress report to give you some updates about what our goals are and how they are doing at accomplishing each one. We will keep an open communication throughout the summer about how things are going!