Is this the year your little one should learn to swim? If between the ages of 3.5 and 5, I’d say most definitely yes. If you’d like to get your beginner enrolled in swim lesson this summer, start inquiring about swim programs today — even though June is more than 4 months away.
Wait until summer or June, and you will find all the best instructors, best group classes, best days and best times all booked up. You don’t want to settle for just some pool and just some warm body to teach your child swimming. Here are 3 things you can do right now to get the swim class or instructor you want summer:
1. Call around and set up visits to watch instructors or group classes. Ask to speak to the Aquatic Program Director or whoever is in charge to learn more about the costs, environment, instructors. This also helps your little one get acquainted with the process.
2. Join a local mother’s club, or get on a local mother’s forum/website. I love trusted forums, where you can pose a new “thread” or question and have a whole slew of people respond. You get unabridged, straightforward answers. I love our local Novato Mother’s Club, and I’ve gotten a lot of business from there.
3. Ask to get on a class or instructor’s Waiting List. If the program doesn’t have one, ask if it makes sense to start one. Even ask if the instructor would be willing to call you. It’s that old adage: The squeaky wheel gets greased. When people make personal contact with me — and make it way ahead of time — I am able to be more receptive and accommodating, simple because I can be. Come summer, I just can’t.
4. EXTRA BONUS: Keep taps, keep checking in. Things get lost, displaced, or forgotten. Don’t be one of them.
Do what you can before you can seal the deal. Today’s topic was inspired by a news article in a North Scotland paper about how 2,500 children are on a swimming waiting list because there aren’t enough qualified instructors or administrative staff to handle the requests.
