Moving on up! Everyone – parents and our young swimmers – talk about moving up to the next level. And they should! It’s a big deal and a major accomplishment to progress through our levels at Goldfish Swim School, mastering the techniques, strokes and learning all about water safety.

But sometimes, it can be hard to know why your child isn’t moving up or to understand what skill they are stuck on that could be holding them back from making progress. You might see your little swimmer pulling, kicking and turning in the water but they are still in the same level – week after week. So, what gives? And it can seem like your swimmer isn’t making progress as fast as other children – especially when you see friends and classmates move up while your child (or children) are still at the same level.

At Goldfish Swim School, we do feature mostly group lessons. However, we work to meet each individual swimmer where they’re at in that moment, in that lesson. That means, we want each and every child to learn, have fun and – most importantly – excel at the skills so they can move up and eventually, join our Swim Force swim team! It’s all a part of our WOW! Customer Service.

So how do you know if your child is learning at an appropriate level? Here are five things to consider:

Consistency

In swimming, as in most things in life, consistency is key. And in swim lessons, being able to do a skill over and over (and over again) in a consistent and competent manner, is one of the ways our instructors determine if your child is ready to move up a level. If your child can sometimes do a kick the right way, but struggles when she adds her arms, or if your little swimmer can do side breaths perfectly but his kick timing is off, that means moving up a level isn’t quite in the cards. We need to see your children being able to do these types of skills consistently, because we build on them from level to level.

Practice

Swimming once a week is a fantastic idea, and it’s not only fun but it means your children get to practice their skills in the pool – meaning they might be able to move up faster! However, once a week might not be enough for a child struggling with a skill or two in her current level. Practice makes progress, we always say, so schedule some time in the water outside of lessons to make sure your little fish has plenty of time to practice his skills. Our Family Swim time is a great way to have fun, burn some energy and bond with your kids. Try it!

Jump Start Clinics

For many little swimmers, its ONE skill that gets them stuck in a level and weekly lessons can mean it might take a while to master it well enough to advance. Luckily, we have a fix for that! Our Jump Start Clinics (which is a swimming lesson a day, every day, for a week!) can give your little fish the boost and extra pool time she needs to master that kick, flip or stroke.

Timing and Pace

Every child learns at a different pace and sometimes, it’s all about timing when we are talking about progressing in swim lessons. For many children, taking lessons week after week is a slow-build. It might look to a parent as if their child isn’t learning but believe us: they are. And sometimes, the growth comes all at once with a skill or stroke being mastered in a short amount of time when it just “clicks.” That’s why we repeat the skills and strokes over and over and use integrity, compassion and trust to bond with our students.

Curriculum and Instruction

We’ve structured our curriculum to meet the needs of every student, knowing that each child’s swimming journey is unique. We work hard to make sure each swimmer gets plenty of individual attention and we use the Science of SwimPlay to help children learn through fun and games – which is how they learn best. Every lesson in the pool is one step closer to your child learning to become safer in and around the water, and trust that we know how precious your time and money is -we want to see those extraordinary results too!

Goldfish Swim School

At Goldfish Swim School, we want every family to have a GOLDEN experience each and every lesson. We teach babies as young as 4 months old how to swim and we focus on water safety during each lesson – and that’s something to celebrate! Check us out! We have locations all over the United States.