The next big venture for Cody was when we joined Lifetime Fitness. I had wanted to get him enrolled in swim classes for the longest time because we have a neighborhood pool, my mom has a pool and we have a place at Lake Cumberland so we are around water ALOT! I was going back and forth between different lessons and the Lifetime Fitness swim classes kind of fell into my lap. When we joined we received Lifetime bucks. You can use them as dollars so I was able to apply them to 6 months of FREE swim lessons! You can’t beat that! They were doing swim lessons at my neighborhood pool, but I thought it was worth driving to Lifetime because it was FREE!
I have been VERY pleased with the swim classes there. They have the option of doing a group class, two kids or private. Some instructors recommend at least having two kids doing the same lesson because it pushes the kids when they see another one doing the same thing, BUT I do think that this would not work for every child. I like that they have three different options so that you can pick what would work best for your child. Also, you don’t get as much one on one time in a group setting as you would with the private or with two kids so you need to think about what it is that you want!
One thing we totally lucked out on was our teacher. If you go to LT in Mason I highly recommend Mr. Rick. He is an older guy and very good with kids! A lot of the other instructors are younger (high school/ college age) and I am not saying they aren’t as good, but I think it helps when you have lots of experience with kids, especially younger kids. I have seen some of the younger instructors get easily annoyed with the kids if they aren’t listening or doing exactly what they are suppose to be doing and frankly, if you have kids of your own, you know that these are age appropriate things that the kids are doing. Another thing that I like is that the group class is 4:1 ratio. That is a pretty good ratio to me and I feel like Cody gets a decent amount of time with the instructor. While the other kids are getting their turn, he can take a little break and play around on the platform. Now, one thing I don’t love about the class is that they do have to be on a platform in the water and when it isn’t their turn they have to stay on the platform and if they were to get off that they are in an area that they can’t touch. I was a nervous wreck over this, but after seeing how watchful Mr. Rick is over the kids and all the lifeguards on duty I felt more at ease. I still remind Cody before every class that he HAS to stay on the platform the entire time unless he is with the teacher. I did question this and Mr. Rick said that rather than putting kids in an area they can touch, they use the platforms in deeper water because it pushes the kids more to try to do things they can’t do. Makes sense I guess, but it still doesn’t mean I can’t hold my breath the whole time hoping Cody doesn’t fall in :)
The first two months I didn’t notice any improvement and Mr. Rick would give us homework after each class…. work on xyz while in the tub at night. Steve did a pretty good job with this (since he does bath for the most part in our house) and we even put some goggles in the tub so he can practice going under water. A few weeks ago, everything just clicked for Cody. He started blowing the bubbles in the water so instead of drinking the water he blew it out! Then he started going under water and holding his breath! They also have some play time built into class and Mr. Rick has been trying to get him to reach for a weighted toy at the bottom and he finally did it! He also jumped off the platform into the water (not the teachers arms) for a few seconds which I didn’t think he would do, but Mr. Rick got him to do it somehow! Let’s just say I was a ball of tears seeing my little guy transform to this big boy!!
My big boy at swim class
He has been doing great and actually started “swimming” on his own without a life jacket while in Florida. Now, he can just go from me to the stairs for a few seconds, but it is a start! The only thing I have to worry about now is the over confidence and reminding him that he can’t really swim yet!! All in all, I have loved the classes and would highly recommend LT to anyone who lives by one!
I would love to hear about your swim class experiences and any tips and tricks you have found that have helped your kids along the way. Also, please let us know if you found any great places for swim lessons and what you love so much about it!!
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