Summer is Near

It's that time of year again.  With the warm weather and the school year coming to an end, folks begin to think of swimming.  There is always a mad rush to sign children up for swim lessons just before, and at the start of summer.  I have always been an advocate of swim lessons during the school year. I know it's "another" activity for families who are already over-committed, but of course, I think it should be a priority.  

Here's the beauty of it.  If you swim once each week, over an extended period of time, your children have the benefit of physically developing, and thus being more capable of preforming certain skills.  This is not as important for the older swimmer, but can be critical for the 2-5 year old.  Think of the milestones children reach at earlier ages; what they can't do one week, they've mastered the next month.  Also, if you take lessons once each week during the school year, or even for a couple of months, and then take a break, and then sign up for another few months, your children will be way ahead of the game come summer time.  While all of those other parents are scrambling to register their children for lessons, you can relax by the pool, confident that while your child is not taking lessons, he or she is practicing skills that have been learned already.  

Summer should be a time for swim team or for vacation or for relaxing by the pool.  So, if your child has not been swimming recently, go ahead and sign them up for lessons this summer.  But when summer draws to an end and school begins, don't stop the lessons!  You don't want to be the parent calling me the day the pool opens to say, "My child was swimming last summer, but he seems to have forgotten everything!"

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