As parents, I think we all agree that essential life skills such as swimming are important.
I’m preaching to the choir, right? Nothing surprising there. We all want what’s best for our kids. Which is why we signed our girls up for Goldfish Swim School in the first place: We wanted them to be equipped with the skills to swim from an early age, as the ability to swim is not only potentially life saving but something that’ll stay with them their whole lives. It’s more than important. It’s vital.
But what I didn’t expect over the course of the time since we signed them up in March was just how many additional life skills swim class would teach them.
With the end of the year quickly approaching, I’ve been reflecting a lot on how we spent our time this year, what has been the most valuable, and what we want to continue doing in 2020. Time is our most valuable possession, after all. One of the things that sticks out to me in terms of things that are an absolute “MUST” to continue next year is swim classes for my kids. Beyond kicking, floating, or holding their breath, they’ve benefitted so much from going to class every week. Today, I’m sharing some of the many ways Goldfish Swim School has helped them!
4 (Surprising!) Ways Goldfish Swim School Benefitted My Kids This Year
Swimming Is A Great Individual Challenge
This year, Grace in particular explored lots of interests. Gymnastics, soccer, and dance, to name a few. She’d enjoy each one for a while, but typically would begin to drag her feet. With soccer, she didn’t have interest in chasing the ball. Dance, she was frustrated with the slower pace of the lessons. Some of this is age, of course (4 is still pretty young and we feel it’s important to keep exploring a variety of interests for her) but I think a lot of her reluctance to attend after a while came from – I hate to say it – boredom. It was like once she got the hang of things, she was kind of over it.
Swimming, however, both girls have been constantly excited to go to. I think it’s because Goldfish Swim School does a great job at advancing them in an appropriate time. Once they get the hang of a skill set and level, they’re advanced to the next, and so on. There’s no waiting for the group; there’s not a lot of sitting around. It’s a challenge, in a good way, for both of them. And a challenge that’s at an appropriate level for them and their individual needs.
Learning To Swim Has Increased Their Confidence
It’s amazing to think about how far both girls have come in such a short time. They both started as absolute beginners – Grace at 3 and Joey at 2 – who were actually quite intimidated of the water. Now, Grace can swim an entire lap of a pool on her own. Josephine is able to pull herself up on the side of the pool and hold her breath under water. Neither cry when they jump in. Though they of course have a long way to go in terms of skills, they both have become so much more confident in the water through regularly practicing. Which in turn has made them more confident in themselves.
It’s Taught Them Endurance and Momentum
It’s rare to get things right the first time. Swim class has helped to teach them that it’s okay to need to practice, practice, practice something until you get it right. It’s also taught them that it’s okay to learn at their own pace. There’s no judgement, just celebrations at each and every little win when it happens. Each time they’ve been advanced to a new swimming “level”, they are so proud of themselves. (As are we!) Which makes them want to keep coming back for more!
It’s Provided A Great Family Bonding Experience
Learning to swim is of course very individualized, but our family has found attending Goldfish Swim School to be a wonderful family bonding time as well.
My mom and step-dad were excited about our girls taking swim classes, and it’s become a tradition for them to attend their classes every week. This started because “Bopa” – my step-dad who is a dear grandparent to my girls – would go with Joey in the adult and kid swim classes. Now that she’s advanced to solo classes without an adult, they still attend to cheer them on. The girls get so excited to show off their skills to them every week! And as a whole, we all enjoy grabbing dinner after swim class every week. It’s evolved into this cute little tradition for us all.
Beyond their grandparents cheering them on, Doug and I have taken our girls to quite a few family swims. There have been a handful of weekends where we’ve had nothing going on, and we’ve decided to go to family swim and enjoy swimming with our girls. It’s a really great thing to do together and helps to encourage our girls to swim because it shows them that swimming is fun and something to do all together!
If you’re thinking of signing up your kiddos for swim school, I can’t encourage it enough! Right now they have lots of packages available too, so it’s the perfect time to sign up or even give the gift of swimming. Swing by the Goldfish Swim School website for more information!
PS – Swing by this post for a list of water safety tips, if you’re interested!
PPS – If you’re interested in following along on the girl’s swim improvement journey, I regularly share on Instagram Stories. Be sure to keep following along!
*This post was sponsored by Goldfish Swim School, however as always all opinions are my own!
