I always get a few tentative, if not disguised as controlled panicked, calls about cramming in more swim lessons right before Labor Day. Although dangling money is enticing and the need sounds dire, I close the pool cover (so to speak) after the first week in August and refrain from returning to teach lessons until this holiday passes. This is a time where everyone just needs to take a break. Summer is over and we’re ALL burned out, from moms to swim teachers to kids. School is rearing up and the seasons are changing. It’s not a time to add panic into the mix.

These are the secrets from having taught swim lessons for a long time. So here is your year-long swim plan to make swimming run stress-free:

August: Take a mental note of your kid’s swim ability. I think of August as the end of swim lesson season. However, if you live in somewhere warm like I do, you can still cram another month or so in. But in regards to all the changes and chaos going on, I’d refrain from pushing for more lessons. The swim instructors are far from fresh at this point and could cause more damage or just give you very limited services.

September: Let your school schedule settle and then look into indoor swim lessons. Swimming makes a great after-school activity. Choose a pool that is at least 85 degrees with a year-long swim staff. Most therapeutic pools are heated pretty high.

October: Close-up the family pool in a proper manner. Make sure the cover is in good condition and the gate gets locked. Stow away any toys so the pool isn’t as enticing for a little one. Ask any neighbors if you can help them do the same, as kids do wander into other yards. And remove all plastic pools from the lawn!

November: Get into a once-a-week swim lesson routine. The idea is to keep your swimmer’s skills refreshed. This can be achieved through group or private lessons at the rate of one visit a week, which remains affordable and do-able.

December: Hold off on lessons during the holidays. Guess where parents stick their kids during winter solstice? If you cannot ski, you go to a community center with a warm pool! Any smart swim teacher takes this time off, as space in the pool becomes limited causing the quality of your lesson to go downhill.

January: Contact your private home instructor. Talk about getting a jump on the game! Make sure he/she will be available this summer and when. Because things change. In my case, I’m pregnant, and will just be ending maternity leave when my summer lessons start (and probably won’t be as available). If you contact me six months ahead of time, I WILL secure you lessons for sure.

February: Ask around if you’re new to the swim lesson game. The goal is to find out which facilities have the best instructors and best prices. Ask your local mother’s club for advice. Gather data.

March: If your kid hasn’t had a lesson since summer, get one now. You want to see once again where you are at with your child’s swim ability in order to plan ahead. Kids do forget how to swim! This is also great if you’re thinking about putting your child on a swim team: Get a private swim teacher’s opinion on how they would fair. It is very common for “great swimmers” to draw a blank during try-outs — a few lessons ahead of time eases the nerves.

April: Tackle the bulk of beginner lessons NOW. This can mean either signing up for them or taking them now. Because the rest of the swimming-parental world will be clawing at pools and instructors in 8 short weeks. Resources will be limited.

May: Go on a vacation and do some swimming! It is SO rewarding for a parent to take their child somewhere special where they can enjoy their swim skills without the daily grind calling at them. You can also get more specific and in-tuned with what you think they need to be working on. Work on pool safety, too.

June: Be strategical on how to get a pool or use yours. Is it too costly to heat your pool and you want home swim lessons? Schedule during a time of day and month when it is hottest to keep the electric bill down. Another idea is to pull a group of moms/kids together — and one must have a pool — and filter swim lessons through there. Look into a local pool summer membership, too.

July: Find out if swimming could be their thing. Ask the instructor how they are doing, as in what their strengths or weaknesses are when it comes to swim ability and character. Ask if they are doing anything above and beyond for their age. Swimming is such a unique and individualized sport that it is the answer for many kids who are turned off by team sports or traditional competitive activities.

Any additional suggestions, you seasoned swim lesson parents? I know you can come up with some good ones! Coming up next: Your Year-Long Swim Plan for You! This entry will include be tips for beginning lap swimmers of any ability.

If you are visiting my site because you read about Squidkid.org in the magazine, you found the place for all things swim related! To help you really get the most out of this resource, I want to direct your attention to my most interesting posts or most popular entries:

• How to swim laps for mom. This link will take you to my most popular entry that will show you — mom — how to swim laps and perform side breathing in three easy steps.
• At your wit’s end with your non-swimmer? It’s frustrating to sign up for lessons and then have your child revolt with tears and tantrums. It’s time consuming, expensive and exhausting for all. This link tells you how to handle it.
• Swim lesson basics for children. New to navigating swim lessons? This link is part of a recent series I am creating that gets straight to the basics of swim topics — this one is about swim lessons for children and covers what you never thought to look for, from swim instructor personalities to price-shop comparison techniques.
• Wet or dry drownings. There is a lot of mystery surrounding the issue of how your child can drown on land hours after leaving the pool. Media tends to not cover of break it down (how many journalists do you know are also expert swim instructors), but I explain the signs of wet or dry drownings.
• Why age 5 is a perfect time to learn to swim. Don’t stress out if your kid doesn’t learn to swim this summer! I know the trend is to push kids and water safety is a priority, but when kids are a little older, they learn to swim in a snap because they are mentally and physically prepared. This is my very first Squidkid entry and still one of my favorites!

I really hope you will stick around and become a regular reader. With summer finally emerging and swim lesson season in full swing, you’re going to need a resource that can answer your every little question. I promise to nurture your child’s swim progress to the best of my abilities from cyberspace!

Best,

Katrina (Tina) Ramser

Target brand’s Up & Up Sport Sunscreen Continuous Spray (SPF 30). Don’t take my word for it — take Consumer Reports. In their July 2010 issue they labeled this spray sunscreen the best based on UVB and UVA protection plus its ability to stay on after water. I don’t particularly care for sprays because they feel oily and weird.  Banana Boat tested well, too.

San Diego Hat Company. A variety of cute and well-made hats with wide brims and able to take on water wear. However, the straw-made ones tend to loose their shape when wet.

Inexpensive SPF face moisturizers. I take a lot of my hair care advice from consumer advocate Paula Begoun. She loves to demystify expensive products. These products are as good as the expensive ones: Aveeno Radiant Skin Daily Moisturizer (SPF 15); Beauty Without Cruelty SPF 15 Daily Face Lotion; Cetaphil Dailt Face Moisturizer SPF 15; and just about every Oil of Oly product that has SPF 15 in it.

Inexpensive shampoos. Remember with hair: It’s dead so it cannot be ‘revived’ or the ends ‘healed.’ And the only thing that makes those so-called chlorine-stripping shampoos special is chelating agents found in all these shampoos: L’Oreal Vive Nature’s Therapy; White Rain Extra Body; and Pantene. Step it up a bit in cost to: Kiehl’s, KMS, Jason Organics and ISO.

Best inexpensive hair line. I swear by Neutrogena Triple Moisturizer found at Target. Get the shampoo, conditioner and leave-in stuff if you can find it. Before you get in the pool, wet your hair and run a dab of the leave-in through your locks.

Dolpin “Uglies” Swimsuits. Made from 100% polyester. I wore mine an average 4 days a week and it lasted about a year before the colors really started to get dull. Very inexpensive with a variety of wild styles. I suggest buying from Swimoutlet.com as I find their prices are about 20% cheaper than elsewhere. Very true to size — I’m thin and a small was too small.

Do you have a product to add? Or a question about a particular one on the market? Post your questions here and I will answer!

What swim skills can my kid work on? Listen for key words like straight kicks, back floating, big arms. If your teacher says they need to work on coming up for air, that means your child definitely needs you close in the water for assistance. By focusing on what they need to work on, this is as close of a question and answer you can get to figuring out when your kid will be swimming on their own.

Can you recommend a good pair of goggles? Goggles can be incredibly inexpensive, like around $4, but not work right. And they can be very expensive,as high as $20 and still not work right. You want to find out what kind of eye size and materials work best for your child’s face, and a teacher knows. A good pair of goggles is priced right in the middle and usually made by Speedo.

Can I leave the pool area? Some teachers love that question and nod their head vigorously in agreement. It sounds harsh, but this is what you want to do for a whining child that won’t listen to your warnings to stop. With lifeguards on duty, this might be a good time to make some calls or get in a little time for yourself.

Is my child behaving in group class? Tell the teacher it’s okay to be honest. If you don’t like the answer, in my opinion hang close to the next class and step in before the teacher does when they are acting up. You don’t want the teacher to use your child’s valuable turn or time disciplining instead of swimming.

Is my child learning about pool safety? There’s a national push right now to educate families and industry professionals about the importance of doing the little safety things around a pool and spa. Make sure you are both understanding the big picture.

Will you be teaching the next group session? The objective is to try and follow the instructor you like and to stay away from the ones you don’t. Trusting (or disliking) a teacher can really impact a child’s swim progress.

Do you teach private lessons? This is in case you feel your child needs more one-on-one attention. Maybe privates are the instructor’s specialty. Maybe you can cut the cost down by adding just one student/friend to make it a semi-private. Perhaps there is even a time to come for a lesson that works even better for your schedule. Just ask.

Do you teach lessons year-round or anywhere else? This is a great question if you are fishing around to see if the instructor might want to come teach at a different pool — specifically one located in your backyard or a neighbor’s. It might not be policy or the best move for the instructor to blatantly take your number (a.k.a business) in front of co-workers or pool managers. Let them navigate you through the hint.

I’ve dolled out advice for parents seeking to stretch those recreational summer dollars, but this entry is for all you swim instructors with a side or home-based swim business. All of these ideas do not cost a lot of money or have liability issues. Here’s 10 ways to drum up more summer swim business.

#1: Call up your past clientele. I’ve never called up a client/family that hasn’t been happy to hear from me. If they don’t want lessons, I bet they know at least one person who does.

#2: Volunteer at school-related events. Now more than ever communities are trying to raise money for schools, and events naturally follow. Have a sign on your ride at a Bike-a-thon.  Pass out swim caps (very inexpensive when ordered in bulk) with your swim business on them at an art fair.

#3: Donate your services at an auction. I went to the Marin Builder’s Association crab feed a couple months back and ran into a swim family of mine. The big to-do of the night was an auction and tickets were about $5 each. During the auction, I was thinking how cool it would have been to donate free swim lessons. I know one family that would have bid on them!

#4: Hello! Social networking on Facebook and the like. Post your business on a social-based network. Start a Tweet account for daily pool updates. Do an email blast. Create an account for your local mother’s club website. I just read a study how 83% of people first go to the interest to check out a business.

#5: Strategically-placed fliers. One parent recommended a good way to get my swim clientele would be to give a bunch of fliers to the elementary schools. Some schools do a “Friday Flier” kind of thing and all kids go home with a bunch of fliers.

#6: Become an expert source. If you join a website like HARO (Helping a Journalist Out), you receive a daily email with a list of articles writers need sources for. I’ve been offering myself as an expert to any summer-related queries in a quick and easy email to the writer. If a writer does contact you, they  interview you and print your info, like a website or where you work.

#7: Piggy-back on bigger names or businesses. I won’t suggest starting your own blog unless you plan to grow it (and become my competitor). If you work for a community center, club or private business, and they have a website, ask the IT or web administrator to include a swim lesson page and bio on you. It’s a win-win for both.

#8: Stick your business card on houses that have pools. Hey, I get tree-service guys doing this all the time because we have a huge redwood in the back. How can you tell a house has a pool? I take walks in neighborhoods and on trails that have big hills so I can spy down on my town.

#9: Follow that pool-man. And stick business cards in the mail box. It might not hurt to going into your local pool store and ask if you can leave business cards.

#10: Get business cards. If you don’t have them, they are free at VistaPrint.com (okay — you’ll pay under $6 for shipping. I’ve used this service many times and it takes about 10 minutes to design a professional card). Have all your info and title. Always have them on you. That means keep them in a plastic bag on the side of the pool when you are in the water. Heck — laminate them.

I’m going to keep the answer simple. Which are sometimes the hardest answers. I want you to keep just two key words in your mind when approaching swimming lessons again: currencies and rescues. You keep these two words close to your heart and mind and when headache and heartache ensues. You hang onto them. You make them your mantras. You make them your behavior and action. You follow them despite your buts, ifs and should I’s. Here’s how:

#1: Hone in on your child’s currencies. This is a Dr. Phil term I learned the other night when he interviewed a family that cannot get their 3-year to quit pooping his pants. The parents were using both positive and negative reinforcements in the form of time-outs and the promise of an unopened prize (a dump truck — the kid loved ‘um). Dr. Phil told the parents it was a control issue and they had not yet stumbled upon the child’s preferred currency, or simply what it would take for the child to give up control. This could be a food, a toy, a game, a person, a place … figure it out and use it as a motivator for attending swim lessons. Currencies change, but they always have the same effect.

#2: Refrain from rescuing. Ah, yes, rescuing. I’m using this as a psychological term. I’ve witnessed even the most enlighten parents getting in their child’s way without acknowledging it. Rescuing is when you allow yourself to be pulled into a situation by your child  that you need to stay out of. Managing or controlling is not the same as helping; what parents fail to realize is THEY are the ones being managed and controlled. I have dealt with a lot of crying children over the years and I can guarantee you they always stop crying at some point — IF the parents stay out of it and allow the instructor to just do their job. If you feel compelled to rescue, hold off on lessons until you are both ready. If you do have a legitimate issue with how the instructor is teaching, then you bring it up to aquatic manager after the lesson is over.

Don’t feel like you are alone if you are at your wit’s end with your non-swimmer. I have parents/readers email me their frustrating stories all the time. If you post a comment or email me about yours, I promise you I will get back to you and make it better!

I don’t know about you, but winter makes it hard for me to follow an exercise routine. I really love to get my physical fitness on in the great outdoors (I’m really into trekking with polls right now), so when the weather sucks, so does my motivation.

Until one of my swim students, Avery M., put my sorry attitude to test.

I’ve know Avery since she could barely swim, and the girl is now onto doing stroke all by herself. We were in the indoor pool and I was practically doing nothing more than watching her swim back and forth when she asked me about the outdoor pool. “Is it open?” she asked. Yes; I answered. Can we go there? she retaliated.

My job is not to stand in the middle of my student’s progress, but the outdoor pool — although heated to 80-degrees — is still a cold proposition with winter’s ennui in full effect.

I thought about it. “Actually, that’s a good idea,” I told her. So we went for it.

Here I was with a swim buddy challenging me to work out with her — kids are our hidden motivators for a lot of things. Exercise included.

We had a great time, and I have a feeling next time I see Avery she is going to hold me to the challenge of swimming outside again. Also, even with just ten minutes to work with, you can create a swim plan.

I don’t have nearly as much experience as my co-teachers. I have nothing near a degree in body physiology. Yet my students tell me they love my class. Most importantly, they keep showing up. Like religiously.

You know what one of my main weapons is to retaining students? I can offer my students a mean water aerobics mix. One that makes you want to move. One that makes you go, “Oh my gosh – I LOVE this song!”

I also do not overplay my music. I ask for suggestions when creating a new mix. Music truly unifies you with others. In that unification, accountability is created. If you’ve ever been to a concert, you know what I’m talking about: You all fall in love with the music together. Someone else’s smile or singing along to the lyrics has as much importance as your own. So when it comes to falling under the enchantment of a very exciting song during exercise, it becomes very important that you’re working as hard as the person next to you.

A great mix has a little bit of everything. You’ve got slower warm-up songs, nostalgic songs, and songs with a challenging beat per minute (bpm). I’m not so much into the techno stuff with fast bpm (136-140). When I first started teaching, I tried to use this but felt phony. I don’t care for techno.

I’m actually into songs you’ve never thought of working out to. Reggie, which creates a nice slow beat for ab crunches and full-range-of motion movements. The Rolling Stones gets my students to flutter kicking in full aerobic form while Mick Jagger’s voice draws out chorus. The B52’s is high-energy fun.

I do not deny myself and my students the pleasure of music. I heard somewhere you’re supposed to “play to your strengths” and I feel I’m doing just that for myself and my students.  Here’s one of my favorite Playlists on my iPod:

Water Aerobics Mix #2

These Eyes – The Guess Who (60’s)

Run On – Moby (late 90’s)

Love Lockdown – Kayne West (today)

Double Dutch Bus –Frankie Smith (70’s – one of the first rap songs ever!)

Magical Mystery Tour – The Beatles (60’s)

Family Affair – Mary J. Blige (today)

Cosmic Thing – B52’s (80’s)

Bad Girls – Donna Summer (70’s)

Cracklin’ Rose – Neil Diamond (70’s)

Don’t Lie – Black Eyed Peas (today)

Say it Right – Nelly Furtado (today)

Rock With You – Michael Jackson (RIP)

Eye in the Sky –Jonatha Brooke (remark of a 70’s song)

I dare you to download on iTunes and try not to workout to that one.

• Came about 5,000 under in hits. I tasked myself to achieve 45,000 hits in one year for a total of 60,000 hits here on Squidkid.com. I thought this was a ridiculous amount, so I feel great getting just under 40,000.
• I didn’t start a second blog. I did, however, take a demanding 6-week online book writing class where I completed an entire book draft to find out if my topic in question was the right new venture for me. I decided that it wasn’t which is the norm: 7 out of 10 entrepreneurs drop their idea upon serious research.
• I completely restructured my swim business. But I took an estimated 20% loss on total net income due to uncontrollable circumstances. Swimming is a temperature-contingent activity, after all, and at mercy to the weather which didn’t clear up until mid-June.

Boy, sure sounds like I didn’t do too well, doesn’t it? Quite the contrary. I learned a couple great lessons this past year. For example, singular successes matter. We’re always pluralizing our goals. We want to work out more, cook more or write more. This past year I completed a 200-mile foot race and got one swim piece published in Parenting Magazine. Two pretty big items. One can be bigger than two. It’s sometimes called the shotgun approach: aim carefully and pull the trigger when you’re sure you won’t miss. Beats spraying bullets everywhere.

Also, by planning for failure, I came ahead. I knew when I started booking my home private swim lessons I was without the usual safety net a third-party pool gives me (ie. enforcing a policy where I get paid even if the client cancels). I decided I didn’t want to put that expectation on people, so I planned to loose 20% of my business due to cancellations, which I did. I planned for losses but still made more money working less.

Finally, I didn’t waist my time doing something I wasn’t 100% into. I love the topic of personal finance. I’ve been possessed with some powerful ambitions to start a blog or write a book about it, so I took myself seriously and signed up for a class with a seasoned and published author who would knock me and my idea around to see if I would still hang on. What I learned is that I’m not ready to go big until I can handle small. So I picked up a personal finance client, Creditopia.com, and am getting my fix, experience and paycheck writing about financial topics on a regular basis (the pay part would have been much harder to eradicate from running a blog or selling a book).

Failure is an important word and I’m not scared to use it. We tend to look down on its usage or substitute the term for something less harsh in this society. I think if you don’t acknowledge your failures, you’re missing a huge part of how to figure out who you are and what you should be doing in life. How has failure shaped you?

Speedo “Endurance” suits. If it don’t say endurance, it’s not 50% polyester and 50% PBT, and therefore will fall apart on you sooner than anything else. Any suit with any percentage of lycra or spandex can stretch beyond wearability in as little as a matter of weeks depending on how much you swim. (I think I’d make a great product tester for Outside Magazine where suits are concerned, as I’ve tried them all in terms of brands and material percentages). My co-worker Virginia has one of these and said it has lasted her years.

Rubber swim fins. The majority fins out there available at Target or sports stores are made of plastic and really, really hurt to wear; not to mention fit terribly. You’ll have to order these at Kiefer.com here. Fins offer more than just fun and games: I strongly endorse fins as a way to improve independent swimming as it give a physical (and mental) boost to the surface for kids who cannot quite yet come up for air on their own.

Pantene conditioner. There’s nothing like the smoothness found in a conditioner with pantenes. For around $3.50, you can get one soft mane. I trust a lot of what “Cosmetics Cop” Paula Begoun recommends, and she states one type of Pantene product isn’t different from the rest (ie. buying the “For Thick and Full Hair” label verses “Smooth for Blondes” or something). Also, wet your hair and slap a little of this into it before you go into the pool.

Bumble & Bumble “Sunday” shampoo. You need a good shampoo with chelating agents in it to strip the chlorine off. I don’t follow up with a chelating conditioner because in my experience, it leaves my hair way too squeaky clean and hard to comb. Which is why I recommend pairing it with the pantenes.  Plus, the costs balance themselves out, as this B&B product is like $19. If you want to know more about what chlorine does to your skin and hair, go here.

WaterGym Float Belt. I linked and wrote about this product here, citing this is the only real water aerobics and “mom” pool item  you really need when swimming with your kids or pool exercising. When I know I’ll be swimming in the deep end with a student, I always slap one of these on. You want to be able to last in the water as long as your kids, so for $22, help yourself out and be both safe and fun.

Quick-Dry Chamois. I’m dying to get one of these towels: Wipe yourself off and squeeze the water out. They are a great big green answer (no washing or using the dryer involved) and store better in your bag than a bigger towel. I’ve found when you take greater responsibility for your swim things — like managing your only towel or self-purchased pool toys — one tends to take better care of them.