Teaching swim lessons?

Maxmosbey

Maxmosbey

Final Approach
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I need to get serious.
O my gosh, I just got talked into teaching swimming lessons for four year olds on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings for the next three weeks. I'll be an "aid", not a full fledged swim instructor. I'm glad for that. Yikes, what did I just get myself into?
 
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Women are much more effective with that age group.
Maxmosbey said:
O my gosh, I just got talked into teaching swimming lessons for four year olds on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings for the next three weeks. I'll be an "aid", not a full fledged swim instructor. I'm glad for that. Yikes, what did I just get myself into?
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wabower said:
Women are much more effective with that age group.
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I agree, but evidently they couldn't find a woman. Evidently they can't find a woman, a kid, or another man to help. I guess that they were in a jam. I don't know. The lesson coordinator said she had to have someone lined up before the end of the day, and that I was her last resort. That's nice to know, I am the last resort.
 
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I just got talked into teaching swimming lessons for four year olds
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I believe I would rather stab myself in the eye with a red hot ice pick.
Do you drink? Maybe you could, heavily, in the hours before each event.
Good luck!
 
Let'sgoflying! said:
I believe I would rather stab myself in the eye with a red hot ice pick.
Do you drink? Maybe you could, heavily, in the hours before each event.
Good luck!
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That is a little harsh. A red hot ice pick? I don't know how it is going to be. It might be fun. We will see. How bad can it be?
 
Watch Kindergarten Cop. Apply his tactics.
 
Re: kindergarten cop

It's not a tumor!!!
 
sorry, forgot the smilies. Also, to be fair - how about a luke-warm pick?:D:D

J/K, you will probably have fun. Just be sure to tell them rule #1. If you have to go to the bathroom, get out of the pool!
 
Read your own tagline, Max. Relax, stay cool, and calm the kids that are scared and upset. The main problems you'll have will be with the parents. If the water is 80F or higher (within reason) things will be easier. You'll soon get the feel of things and learn some lessons yourself. Hang in there! :)
 
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I paid my way through college teaching little kids to swim. Its a blast! A couple things that helped me through. Make it fun, NEVER spook them, be stern (little kids will start crying when they don't want to do something) and focus on the basics...going underwater, blowing bubbles, floating and kicking. My philosophy was to take a safety mentality. How do I prepare the kids for accidentally falling in the water and not freaking out? I knew I wasn't training Sptiz's kids, but if they could survive 10 seconds in water over there head, then it was that much more time for someone to help them. Everything about the water has to be positive...no negative reenforcement because, trust me, it will stick.

Also, try to get the water as warm as possible. That will be a hard fight if the pool is also used for workouts.
 
Mach.12 said:
I paid my way through college teaching little kids to swim. Its a blast! A couple things that helped me through. Make it fun, NEVER spook them, be stern (little kids will start crying when they don't want to do something) and focus on the basics...going underwater, blowing bubbles, floating and kicking. My philosophy was to take a safety mentality. How do I prepare the kids for accidentally falling in the water and not freaking out? I knew I wasn't training Sptiz's kids, but if they could survive 10 seconds in water over there head, then it was that much more time for someone to help them. Everything about the water has to be positive...no negative reenforcement because, trust me, it will stick.

Also, try to get the water as warm as possible. That will be a hard fight if the pool is also used for workouts.
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Excellent advise. I taught swim lessons for several years when I was in High School and College. Keeping it fun is a huge part of it, as is getting the kids to like you. Kids will try a lot harder if they like you than if they don't.

Also, we never let the parents (particularly the moms) within eyesight when we were teaching lessons. At first, very few children like putting their face in the water, so you have to help them. ;-)

If mom is around, kids will immediately start crying and looking for Mom to come bail 'em out. Mom will be very tempted, because that's what Moms do, and the kids will pitch a bigger and bigger fit trying to get their desired outcome. Take Mom out of the equation and it is a lot easier.
 
Good advice from you both. I am just an aid, so the primary instructor will probably set the agenda, and I'll just help. It sounds to me like they are having trouble getting instructors and aids. A couple of weeks ago they were offering the WSI course to lifeguards for free if they would teach swimming lessons. I passed on the offer at that time, but I got the call Friday and they seemed desperate, so I'm there. Only three weeks. I also think that I will be sitting in the lifeguard stand for a water aerobics class for forty five minutes after the lessons, then I go straight to the aquatic center for my afternoon shift. The lessons and water aerobics are at the municipal indoor pool up the hill from the aquatic center. Retirement is slipping away fast this summer.
 
how many of them will you have in the each class at a time? That makes a difference too. Figure out the ones that are friends and put them in pairs too - that way they can encourage each other possibly and you can do 2 at a a time for some of the "exercises" - maybe have them hold hands and then keep on hand on the side and kick together. I'm assuming they all have on life vest for the first part?
 
Jeanie said:
how many of them will you have in the each class at a time? That makes a difference too. Figure out the ones that are friends and put them in pairs too - that way they can encourage each other possibly and you can do 2 at a a time for some of the "exercises" - maybe have them hold hands and then keep on hand on the side and kick together. I'm assuming they all have on life vest for the first part?
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I have no idea how many there are. I go in a half hour early tomorrow so that the instructor can tell me what to do. I'm not even sure who the instructor is. I'm not running the show. I'm a lifeguard supervisor, not a swim instructor. I got talked into this over the phone. I think that I am going to have fun though.
 
Jeanie said:
OK, so todays the day.... how did it go?
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It went OK. When I got there they had already switched me from the 4 year olds to level 3. However, I went into the lifeguard rotation twice, so in the little over three hours that I was there I did two sessions on the chair, and two helping teach level 3. Evidently level 3 is kids who can kick, dive under water and get stuff that we threw in for them, but they can't yet swim and breath, so they had to stand up to breath. Spent an inordinate amount of time trying to get them to float on their backs. Did an exercise with the kick boards where they would hold on with one hand while they stroke with the other, changing hands on the kick board with each stroke. I thought that was a good drill. I tried it myself a couple of times. There were six kids in each class. The second time I took my goggles and when we threw the rings out for them to go after, I would watch them under water. We threw out twelve or so rings, and they had to see how many they could get at one time. That was really fun to watch. All and all it was pretty easy money.
 
Do they get any 'free time' in the pool? We learned more about how to interact with H2O then, compared to a lot of the organized time.
 
My dad threw me off of a dock and yelled swim! LOL! I did the same, was a life guard through part of my college. Did the life guard thing, taught swimming, taught CPR and first responder. It's a good thing! Teaching is great, especially life saving including their own.
 
I've taught swimming, although never to kids that young (except siblings and other relatives).

In general, I like to teach the student to breathe first, then to teach the arm and leg movements separately, and then to have them put it all together.

Of course, that's not the way I was taught to teach swimming... it just happens to work well for me. YMMV.

-Rich
 
I finished with swim lessons last week. It was fun enough, but I made it clear that I did not want to do it next session, which starts the second week of July. I ended up working with level 3 and level 4. I liked level 4 the best. I never did have to do the 4 year olds, which are actually pre-school level 1 and 2. All and all it was OK. I'm glad that I did it, just for the reason that I enjoyed working with the instructors and the other aids. I met a lot of fun kids. Also the assistant P&R director owes me now for doing it at the last minute. Anyway it is back to just my regular job, which is lifeguard supervisor. I missed a couple of meetings and a couple of in-service trainings that I would have liked to have attended. I also missed my Wednesday morning golf two weeks in a row because of it. I'm glad to be back on my regular schedule.
 
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