Letters From Atlantis: A Blog for Swim Parents!

Who is that out in the water with your normal swim teacher? That's Coach Natasha and she has been undergoing ASA's swim instructor training program since July! Our instructors normally train for 1-2 months (that's up to 72 hours!) before taking their own classes. Why does Atlantis have such a strict training regimen? Because we believe in high quality lessons and high quality swim teachers that are properly equipped to teach them! Coach Natasha loves teaching swim lessons & has a natural love for the water. Patience, encouragement & enthusiasm define her teaching style and she is able to instantly connect with students of every age by making every encounter warm, inviting and stress-free. She will start hosting her own classes beginning September 2019 and we are SO happy to welcome her into the Atlantis family. Keep up the good work Natasha!

It can be incredibly exciting getting your child into a new sport or activity like swimming lessons. A question we often get asked is "How long will it take my child to swim?". Learning to swim requires a large time commitment just like learning to count, read or use math skills. These skills take a huge amount of repetition to master and swimming is no different. Each child learns at their own pace and through different mediums: some kids are very visual while others need to DO the skill and require more hands on experience in order to master it. Also remember that while your preschooler or elementary aged child gets to practice those skills almost every day at school or daycare most parents opt to attend swim lessons just once per week. For a younger child, attending a 30 minute class one time per week is like asking you to practice Spanish for 5 minutes every Saturday and asking you on Friday what you remembered. Patience really does pay off when it comes to swim lessons and there will be a day when all of your child's skills flow together into a beautiful moment of perfection!

Finding swim lessons for a child with special needs can be a daunting task. You may be worried that they can't do swim lessons, that you can't find a patient teacher or that they may be too expensive. We're here to set the record straight for what you should expect during this process and how your child can benefit from swim lessons.