Tips for making swim lessons fun and successful
1. Look for a swim program that best fits what you're looking for. Research all the swim schools in your area and ask about their teaching philosophies and curriculum. Find one that fits you and your family’s needs.
2. Communicate with your instructor. Ask lots of questions. Talk with the instructor before and after every lesson to help create appropriate expectations. Check in to see how your little ones are doing. Ask if there is anything that you can do to help.
3. Swimming is a fun activity and an important life skill. Provide lots of supervised exposure to water. Students who excel quickly in aquatics are ones that have access to a great deal of swimming and aquatic related activities. Sometimes you have to let the water be the coach.
4. Be patient. Learning to be a strong and safe swimmer takes time and is a lifetime endeavor so you've got plenty of time to work on it. Don’t be surprised if the first few lessons are a bit difficult. Practice swimming outside the lessons if it is alright with the instructor.
5. Keep children enthusiastic about swimming. Swimming should be fun, not work. If it starts to feel like work then children will usually become disinterested. If they start to dislike swimming lessons, you can try to use incentives to encourage children to stay motivated and involved. Don't give up! Your children may not want to stay enrolled but if given time to adjust to the lessons, they will most likely learn to love it.
6. Don't put pressure on your children to do well. The learning environment should be open, positive, and rewarding. Pressure to perform a certain way could cause the student to dislike the lessons and this could cause a delay in the student’s swim progress.
