WORKING TOGETHER AS A TEAM
Survival Swimming Lessons
Our Common Goal
As your child’s teacher, our goal for them is to learn survival skills in the water. We want them to love swim lessons and to learn and progress in every lesson. As their caregiver, your goal too, is to have a safe and confident swimmer. With this common goal, it is important parents and teachers work together so your child can succeed.
Practice at home
Sometimes during a lesson, especially in the beginning, things may seem hard. For example, putting their face in the water can be a big deal and something that may take a few lessons to overcome. So how can you help? It could be very beneficial to encourage your little one to put their face in the water during bath time at home, just to give them another environment to practice it in. Even pouring water over their head so it gets in their face can help them see it is not so bad to get their face wet. Having mom or dad help them with this at home can also be comforting to them, and not see it as a negative thing they have to do during swim lessons. With this, sometimes your OSA teacher may encourage practicing things at home to help progress your child and build their confidence.
Helping them look forward to swim lessons
It is not uncommon for kiddos to not want to come to swim lessons – it’s hard work! So, it does not take long for a child to voice they dislike swim lessons sometimes. All of this is normal and can only get better if they keep coming to lessons so they see that the once hard work is now incredibly easy for them. Consistency is key! In each lesson, even though they’re working hard, your child’s teacher also makes sure to incorporate fun in the lesson. We do this by playing with toys or taking a moment to just be silly. However, you can also help them look forward to lessons. On the car ride to lessons you can tell them how excited you are to see them swim, and really get them excited about showing off what they’re learning. You may even give them something to look forward to after lessons such as a small treat or something fun to do. Sometimes grandparents coming to watch can also be a major confidence boost for a kiddo, and they of course want to show off to grandma and grandpa. We want to work together to make your child look forward to lessons.
Keeping the line of communication open
At OSA, we are completely open and give you all the feedback you need to know about how your child’s progress in our program. We let you know their struggles and what they have mastered and how we plan to keep them moving forward. We also want an open line of communication with our parents, whether you are worried about their progress or simply that your kiddo will just not stop talking about their swim lessons because love it so much! We want to know how you are feeling and how your child is feeling so we know how to address lessons going forward. Because our survival swim lessons are child-centered, many factors depend on your child’s confidence level in the water. So, it is very important that teachers and parents work as a team to make sure we get to the common goal of having a safe swimmer.
Written by: Meagan Rose, OSA Instructor