It was the moment of truth. We were making our annual trip to Northern Michigan where entire days are spent playing in the water. I could tell the Goldfish Swim School lessons were paying off, but I thought the true test would be how confident the kids were swimming in the lake.
In my opinion, lake swimming is a little different than swimming in a pool. First off, there are the waves to deal with. Whether it’s a windy day, or there are boats leaving waves in their wake – every now and then there’s a chance you may end up with a little water splash to the face from the wave rolling by. Secondly, at the lake you never know how deep it is and how quickly that will change. It could be a slow descent into deeper water, or you could find yourself at the precipice of a massive drop-off. You just don’t know.
Because of these things and more (I realize this isn’t a post on the difference between lakes and pools, so I’ll stop there), being a confident swimmer is of the utmost importance and as I said before,our trip here was the test.
And do you know what? Goldfish Swim School passed the test with flying colors.
My husband and I were both amazed and thrilled with the difference in their swimming this summer as opposed to last summer. It was seriously like night and day. The girls both kept their face under water. They could swim long distances at a time.
They were doing mermaid kicks and practicing their freestyle. They were diving for shells and spending time exploring under water. I was blown away.
Big waves. No problem. The waves had nothing on these fantastic little swimmers.
I attribute this new found confidence and increase in skills to the Goldfish Swim School model of continual lessons. The kids have taken lessons every year for years and we have never seen progress like this.
Each lesson builds off of the previous lesson. Last week, the girls both moved up again. They now are at the last level (Pro 2) before they move up to Swim Force, which is the Goldfish Swim School Swim Team.
All of their hard work each week is reinforced with words of affirmation and when they move up to the next level they receive a ribbon. As I go to pick the kids up from their lanes and their instructors let me know about their accomplishments that day, I can see the look of pride on each of their faces. When the girls moved up to Pro 2, they were beyond excited to be just one level away from swim team.
It is fun to see them working so hard and it is wonderful to see the continual progress being made. Here, at the lake, as days at a time are spent in the water swimming with the fish, I have really been able to witness the progress made. If they have made this much progress already, I can only imagine how they will be swimming in a couple of months.
Goldfish Swim School has a location in Carmel and one in Fishers.
Carmel location: 271 Merchants Square Drive, Suite A-110
Fishers location: 11581 Geist Pavilion Drive, Suite 114
For more information on Jump Start Clinics, swim lessons and family swim times at both facilities, please visit their website or call 317-810-3790.
Jennifer Thompson is a stay-at-home mom of four spunky, sweet, kind and sometimes a bit wild children. She has a passion for the written word and thinks that libraries and bookstores are the coolest places ever. When not hanging out with family or writing, she can be found enjoying a good cup of coffee, running, spending quality time with friends, working on some type of project around the house, planning the family’s next trip to her favorite destination – Walloon Lake, Michigan, or very possibly – reading a book.
Jennifer enjoys writing about her parenting experience and outings with her children for Indy’s Child as a freelance writer and blogger and also keeps a personal blog, www.trulyyoursjen.com, that she has fun writing when time permits.
