It is the time of year where I start to dream of the beach and the pool and hot summer days. Summer seems so close but yet so far away. It is also the time of the year where I start to get extra concerned that the 5-year old doesn’t like to put her head under water and still wants to use her puddle jumper every time we are at the pool. It really would put my mom mind at ease if my kids learned how to swim. What is an Omaha mom to do?
The Goldfish Swim School Experience
These past eight weeks, I took my kids to weekly lessons at Goldfish Swim School. I was given these lessons so that I could write about them on this blog, but the opinions I’m expressing are truly mine.
Initially, Goldfish made a strong first impression. Setting up lessons at two different levels for two different kids was simple. They took the responsibility on themselves to move some classes around so that I could have a preferred time (this pattern continued when I had to schedule a make-up). I felt welcomed from the beginning.
When you first show up to the swim school, it looks like an ordinary bay in a strip shopping center. But once inside the doors you are transported to another place. It is bright and colorful and as my kids fondly declared upon first glace… “Mom, it looks like Hawaii in here!” After we were greeted warmly at the door, we found our way to the pool.
Goldfish keeps the inside air of the pool at 90ish degrees and the water is warm too. These are all little things that made a difference in my kids comfort levels. At one of our other lessons at another swim place, the kids were so cold they refused to go into the water. So, as small as this environmental tweak seems, it made a big difference to me.
For lessons, the kids progress through Goldfish’s different stages and each of the stages are broken down by small sets of skills that need to be mastered to be moved up to the next level of class. At the first lesson they showed me the checklist and talked through which skills my daughter could do and which still needed work. Also every week, at every lesson, they call the parents in and have the child show their parent what skill they worked on. This is a genius teaching idea because of the way it adds additional positive motivation to the practice. My kids both beamed with pride to hear their teacher say that they are really good at something and then they relished getting to show me the skill! It didn’t hurt that they had the same teacher every week that got to know them.
One of the other things that made this experience the best in Omaha is that my kids were excited to go there and were happy while they were there. In talking to the manager, I learned that she intentionally hires instructors who truly love working with people. It shows. The (mostly) high school kids teaching the lessons are great with kids and taught effectively.
My Conclusion
So some of you are thinking… OK,OK…. You went to a pretty place with nice people BUT did the kids become better swimmers? This is the best part. My kids both made HUGE strides in the 8 weeks of lessons we had. When we started, my oldest couldn’t rotary breath or swim the whole length of the pool without doggie-paddling, now she can do both. My youngest initially resisted putting her head in the water and now she can back float, put her head in the water, and use her arms to front stroke for about half the length of the pool. I was honestly shocked that they gained as much skill as they did!
If you need a place to take weekly swim lessons year round and want to see results, Goldfish swim school West Omaha is the place for you.
I wholeheartedly recommend it! The first lesson is always free. Once you try it the atmosphere and friendly instruction will speak for itself.
