Summer Splash!

Here’s the scary truth… in my city, if my three kids take 4 weeks of swim lessons during the summer, I pay more than 1K. Oh the pain! We now have a pool in our back yard and those kids need to know how to swim. So, here’s how we’ve managed.

We host swim lessons!

Our super-duper swim teacher used to be our super-duper babysitter. I knew she was a hard-core swimmer, so when we moved into our new house, I asked her if she’d ever taught at a swim school. And the rest is swim lesson history.

The parameters we created were: No more than 3 children in a lesson group, 30 minutes per class, 4 classes each week. Parents basically paid $5 per day. So, for example we hosted four, back-to-back lessons in the backyard from 1:00-3:00, Monday – Thursday. People could come early for 15 minutes of free swim or stay late for 20 more minutes of swimming.

Starting up your own backyard swim program is not a small undertaking, but it has been worth it. I started quietly reaching out to a few families with kids of similar ages to mine. After I’d gotten a small group of people interested, I sent emails to all of them asking about the children’s swim experience and ability. I created schedules that grouped children in similar skill levels and sent those out for everyone.

I was also the deck manager. My job from day to day was to call out the start of each class and let the teacher know when it was halfway over and when she had 5 minutes left. I also kept my eyes on the pool anytime free swims were happening and during new swimmer classes. It’s important to have an extra set of eyes on those bouncy little beginners! I handled the money as parents turned it in and gave our teacher a lump sum at the end of the week. She had no interest in keeping track of late payments, partial payments, ect.

For all this work, my kids got the least expensive, most convenient summer of swimming and play dates ever and I got some wonderful conversation time with women I rarely get to sit down with. If you have a pool, I highly recommend it! Our teacher earned a much higher hourly rate than she does at larger swim schools.

So here’s my take-away.

• Get a fully competent teacher! (Ask around at the high school swim team, youth group or health club) They should have life guarding and/or teaching experience. I have CPR training; get some or make sure somebody does.
• Know how your teacher is with kids, either from your own observations or references.
• Do a trial lesson to see how they interact with your crew. Not all personalities click. Make sure they can make your kids focus and obey in the water. If they don’t work out, no hard feelings. They’ve been paid for their time.
• This was a rare activity where I did not invite strangers. I have no problem with a few strangers in my home, but because of the possibility of accidents, I wanted to know the families I included.
• No matter who you include, it’s a good idea to check your renter’s or home owner’s insurance to make sure your guests are cared for if an accident occurs.

 

Some thoughts about those accomplishment books that swim schools give out. They’re nice. Last summer I made progress sheets for each class of swimmers. Our teacher would use them for her lesson plans and the kids would get stickers for each new thing they’d accomplished in the water. Parents liked to see in print all the wonderful things that their children were learning.

I didn’t do them this year.

They were a massive pain to create, keep track of, up-date, ect. I’m glad I didn’t mess with them. I’m big into sustainable hosting and the work that goes into this is no joke. My goals were for a small group of kids to have access to affordable, high-quality swim lessons and to enjoy the atmosphere of our backyard. For me, progress report sheets were not required.  If you want them, Click Here to see a couple that I used in the past. They can give you a place to start from.