Swim lady?

[waterbug]

Does anyone know the contact info for the woman who teaches swimming out at her house in the direction of Fayette?

[Moozle]

Her name is Anne Mims. I will find her phone number and post it tomorrow. We have not used her yet, but she is supposed to be awesome.

[waterbug]

Thank you! I think I asked you about her before. Lulu (4) is in her second round (she did a month last year) of UA swim. Day one I was like omg she is an entirely different kid yay! Day two back to afraid to glide with face in water but always willing to go under in the vertical sense. Unfortunately you need to be horizontal to swim ;) we will complete our 8 twice a week sessions but then.....swim lady?

And...Please oh please no offense to anyone but please do not recommend vance rose swim kids. Part of the reason I have a hesitant kid is an overzealous, lie straight to kid's face, dunker from the mom and me days! Swim kids set me back mentally and financially.

[Northport Mom]

We spend tons of time on the water, and we LOVE Swim Kids! We have been every summer for the past 4 years. We did Baby and Me for 3 years, and my husband got in with him every time until last year when he could get in by himself at 4. Any professional will tell you that kids are not really swimming on their own (underwater, doggy paddling doesn't count) until about 4. Last summer, he started swimming unbelievably underwater for long periods of time at age 4! My one year old went last year too, and learned some great fundamentals.

Anne Mims lessons, towards Northside, are for one week only and are outside. There are about 10 kids to a group, compared to a max of 4 at swim kids. The one-one-one instruction, plus the comforts for the parents of an inside pool, was a much better fit for our family.

[Moozle]

I finally found the number to call to schedule lessons with Anne - it's 242-0129.  Let me know if you decide to put Lulu in them this summer.  I REALLY want to get Amelia in them too, but it's such a pain to get out there every day.  Maybe we could carpool.

[waterbug]

Thank you!!

[waterbug]

I didn't see Northport Mom's response from earlier...

Alright then...the full story...

I had a very brave water loving go under water on her own nearly two year old. Because of this I took her to a Swim Kids mom and me class. She was very verbal and well equipped to follow directions in a class setting and had participated in other activities independent from me (you may think 'what does this have to do with anything?' but wait, you'll see). BECKY our 'instructor' was very very loud and very very disorganized. The class had no structure what so ever and she spent the bulk of each class chatting with a parent she seemed to know and occasionally headed our way to shout in my kids face. On day one she said, "will you come to ms. Becky?" and my kid did. Becky then proceeded (in her incredibly loud voice) to say, "I won't put you under I won't put you under.." then swoosh there goes my kid under the water. Yes, BECKY lied straight in my child's face! I attempted to act happy and proud that she had been ok with being thrust under the water after being lied to, but the damage had been done. The next lesson she had no interest in going with loud lying Becky at all. By the third lesson another kid's grandmother and I decided to use the remaining lessons to use the pool to acclimate our kids to the water as clearly no real lessons were going to happen. On our last visit I was teaching my daughter to haul herself out of the pool when suddenly, out of nowhere here comes Becky up behind her and with the VERY LOUD voice was shouting while pushing tidal waves of water (you know when you take both hands together in front of you and push water with a kadunk!) 'IM SPLASHING YOU IM SPLASHING YOU!!' my daughter could neither move in or out of the pool but instead froze up and started sobbing and heaving. I got her out of the pool and we never went back. Swim kids later called and asked what was wrong and I tried to tell them only to be told 'some children have a hard time with new people and get shy' ummmmmm yeah right.

[Northport Mom]

I know exactly who you are referring to. If you were unhappy, then you should have spoken to Vance, the owner, or Karen, the director. I guarantee you they would have changed your child's class instructor for you. And, I am speaking from experience after I changed once. For that matter, its just like school. It's always possible to get one instructor (teacher) that is better than another. But, to speak in a public place in a negative manner about the entire organization (ie school), from one bad experience, isn't the right move either. We loved it there, and can't wait to start back this summer!

[waterbug]

I speak publicly because we are not the only ones who have had this experience. In my original post I specifically asked folks not to recommend swim kids without me going into it. But, since you went ahead and recommended them I thought you (and others who might drop a ton of cash to Vance and friends for the privilege of hanging out in a pool with an instructor with no structure) might want to know why I don't recommend them. I speak not to the classes for older children, only to our experience in mom and me. Yes, I did contact them and they offered another instructor/time but they failed to mention Becky would be in the pool at the same time. My kid got to the door took one look at Becky in the pool and ran back to the locker room. Fail! They offered me to take her to 4 remaining classes in the future with different instructor. Heck, you can have them. Again, swim kids may rock for certain age groups but mom and me was a tremendous waste of money for us.