Swimming Like Fish (Almost!) with The Swimming Room {Giveaway}

When it comes to signing up our kids for extra activities, we here can be quite spoilt for choice. There are so many fun and educational classes out there!

I always feel very tempted to sign my kids up for a bunch of activities but with limited time and resources, I’ve had to choose carefully and go for what I really think they need first. Chinese was the first one on the list, but very close behind that was swimming. To me, swimming isn’t an enrichment activity as much as it is a life skill. Particularly considering the fact that we live on an island!

I first started Noey on swimming just before he turned four and in a blink of an eye, he’s been swimming for 2.5 years! These days he’s so comfortable in the water that it is hard to remember that before he started swimming lessons, he was a squeamish little boy who was very fussy about water being in his face. Yet, that was exactly what he was. In fact, the day he started class, I was fully prepared to have to get in the water with him.

I didn’t have to and from the first lesson, Noey has never looked back. And it wasn’t just him. Two of his swim mates also had some water anxiety, but you wouldn’t be able to tell if you see them now!

Guess which of these kids used to freak out when they got their faces wet!

Credit for this goes completely to their coach, Eugene from The Swimming Room (TSR). I’ve known Eugene for many years as a friend of my sister, and being aware of his years of competitive swimming and water polo, I knew he had the relevant background for the job. I also knew that he had been coaching for many years but I didn’t realise that this year would mark his 15th year in this line.

Well, the experience certainly showed from the first lesson as he worked his magic with the kids.

“It might take our kids a while to get used to swimming lessons,” we said.

“They won’t wear their goggles.”

“They don’t like to get their face wet.”

As it turned out, they did get into the pool, from the first lesson and in the weeks subsequently. After a couple of lessons, they wore their goggles without question. Not long after that, Uncle Eugene (as they called him) was getting them to blow bubbles with their faces in the water, submerge themselves to pick up items from the pool floor, float on their backs with their arms outstretched and kick over a distance. Yes, there were moments when they had mental blocks and would refuse to participate but Uncle Eugene was always able to coax them back into action.

Today, Noey is able to do the frontcrawl and breaststroke, and also backstroke when he’s not feeling lazy! He’s now starting to learn the butterfly stroke. If you know my son, you know that he’s not the most coordinated (and that might be an understatement). So he certainly isn’t the fastest learner, but I’m proud of how far he has come.

At the TSR Swim Proficiency Test at Katong Swimming Complex. Noey cleared his frontcrawl proficiency assessment. Yay.

So when it was Mei’s turn to start swimming this year, I knew that the best person to teach her would be Uncle Eugene. It certainly helped that she was familiar with him. But it was more because my daughter is a different kettle of fish from my son, stubborn and strong-willed, and I knew Eugene would be up to the task. As expected, she had moments, but by and large she’s doing well. And having a whale of a time!

Learning to float with a kick board with their feet at the edge of the pool in their spiffy new suits and caps (sporting TSR’s new logo).

Making that big jump of faith!

Picking up their own colour-coded stick from the bottom of the pool.

Star float!

If you’re wondering if it is necessary to get a swim coach to teach your kids how to swim instead of coaching them yourself, well, you’re not alone. I had the same thoughts initially, especially since the husband is a good swimmer with beautiful strokes. He in fact suggested teaching the kids himself. But I have no regrets getting Eugene step in. From our experience with TSR, I’ve found that:

1. The kids find it more fun to learn with friends in a group. This is especially true for younger kids who enjoy company and might feel intimidated if they were to learn on their own. Peer pressure also helps keep them going!

2. There are just some things a child is more willing to do with a coach than their own parents. One of the mums in our group was rather amused that her daughter would jump into the pool to Eugene when she had always refused to jump when asked by her Daddy. Kids respond differently to different forms of authority (or lack thereof!).

3. An experienced coach is better placed to meet the needs of the child. I know it would have frustrated us if Noey just flatly refused to do or try what we want him to do. It takes someone more qualified than us to teach our kid in an age-appropriate manner that motivates him/her to keep learning.

In short, some things are just better left to the professionals!

GIVEAWAY!

If you’ve been thinking of getting your kids started on swimming, or are looking for a coach, here’s your chance because I have 3 TSR TRIAL CLASS SESSION PASSES to give away! Each session pass gives you not one but THREE lessons. I think this is fantastic because sometimes you might not be able to really tell with a single trial class how the children might take to the class and coach, but three should give you a better gauge.

The available session dates, venues and time slots are as follows:

To enter this draw to win a session pass, you have to complete the following steps:

1. Like the The Swimming Room Facebook Page

2. Like the Life is in the Small Things Facebook Page

3. Like and Share this post AND Tag 2 friends! (Please remember to set your post to public when sharing for the purpose of our verification.)

You have to complete all 3 steps to qualify so don’t miss any out!

This draw will close on 1 June 2015, 11.59PM and is open to Singapore residents only. The winners will be able to pick one session each from any of the sessions listed above. The rest of the usual terms and conditions will apply.

The Swimming Room
Web: www.theswimmingroom.com
E-mail: admin@theswimmingroom.com
SMS: 96443077

*This post is part of a series brought to you in collaboration with The Swimming Room. All opinions, as always, remain my own.