“No running!” a lifeguard screeched as she blew her whistle, the shrill noise bouncing off the walls of United Township High School’s indoor pool. I anxiously stood at the edge of the water in my cat-poop-yellow one piece as a frantic graying woman tried to corral eleven second graders bent on making their own personal tsunamis.
“Grab your board, hunny, and get in the pool,” she shouted to me distractedly. I picked up one of the dented foam pads and slipped my toes cautiously into water that smelled strongly of chaos and urine.
Four weeks every summer. And I still couldn’t swim. I only caught on when my dad threw me into the lake and some frantic dog-paddle emerged and got me to the shore.
So when a good friend recommended Emler Swim School last year, I scoffed and immediately dismissed the suggestion, as visions of my past experiences swam to mind.
I have three boys and they are giant. I’m uncertain how this happened as my husband and I are normal-heighted-folk. But our four year old son, Jake, began to just sink and panic when we’d head to public pools in the summer and it seemed something needed to be done to teach his lanky limbs how to work in the water before he developed a real fear.
So we enrolled. And I was super skeptical.
Until I walked in the door.
We first saw a clean and open room with a wall of windows separating rows of parent seats from the pool. Smiling faces greeted us from the reception desk.
Changing rooms lined the periphery of the space while a bright face waved a laminated sign from the pool, signaling it was Jake’s turn.
“Hey Jake!” Karen beamed brightly (but not too brightly), “I’ll be helping you learn how to swim.” She strapped him with a pair of turquoise goggles and gently helped him into the pool. I noticed there were only two other kids in his class.
He was really hesitant, but Karen noticed that immediately and simply acclimated him to the water. They laughed and splashed and by the end of the half our, he was sold. By week six he could swim ten feet. By the end of the 19 week class, he could swim nearly the length of the pool independently, taking breaths as he went. They teach boat safety, grabbing an adult to help a struggling swimmer, immediately turning to grab a wall when you fall in, and cap each class off with a plunge down this awesome yellow slide.
Jake took to it instantly and it was the highlight of his week. I loved going to watch him and was most pleased that there was narry a scent of urine to be found (they double diaper the babies and have a UV filter that kills “pee germs” on contact).
These were not my childhood swim lessons and for that I was so grateful. This was a school that taught safety then technique and had incredible teachers and staff with small classes and great facilities to get the best results possible while having a whole lotta fun.
As the school year winds down and summer quickly approaches, it’s great to consider swim lessons and I’d strongly recommend Emler.
But what do you do when your kid doesn't warm up to the water right away? Next time, I'll talk about how we got our second son from screaming every lesson to celebrating his first tear-free session last week. And let me tell you, it took a village...a village who cares about your kiddos.
