As I (Shelly) mentioned when the adventure started, this summer SafeSplash Swim School invited Of Sound Mind and Spirit to blog about our experience with their swim school in exchange for four weekly swimming lessons.

This week’s lesson continues many of the basic skills previously introduced, the concept of back and front floating, kicks and scoops, and putting your face underwater. My teenage daughter is at my side watching her brother when she looks at me and grins, “This makes me want to swim again.”

My son excels at the “Monkey Crawl” and anticipates the next part of the lesson, climbing out of the pool, ready to jump back in on the instructor’s command. While doing kicks and scoops or barbell down the lane, he’s a talker and I want to shout at him, “Put your head down and swim.“

After just four short lessons, he clearly is more relaxed and comfortable being in the water. He thinks they’re playing, but everything taking place is a foundation block introducing the skills and movements that – when mastered and coordinated – will be floating and swimming.

As I sit watching my son asking for the rings, so he can bob up and down underwater, I review my top five reasons why this working mom chooses SafeSplash for future lessons.

• Instructors – Our swimming instructor was kind, patient, smiled and engaged the students in a positive encouraging manner. When my son wrapped his arm around her neck in the first lesson, she just calmly loosened his grip and helped him into a new position. She treated each of her students as though it was the first lesson of the day, not the umpteenth.

• Schedule – Swimming lessons and swim team are not working mom friendly sports, because they are often scheduled daily in the morning hours of summer – at the same time as that weekly staff meeting or your first client call of the day. SafeSplash partners with pools to offer a flexible schedule that fits my busy working mom schedule with weekly classes on Saturday and weekdays after 6 p.m.

• Group Lessons – Group lessons are good for encouraging kids to try something new. It offers them the opportunity to meet new friends and watch someone go first if they’re feeling hesitant.

• Curriculum – SafeSplash partnered with an Olympic gold medalist swimmer to develop a proven structured curriculum designed to progressively build one lesson on top of the other. It’s simplicity says to me they believe Anyone Can Swim, which reminds me of the “Anyone Can Cook” motto from the movie Ratatouille. Either way, it works!

• Fun  – Overall our experience with SafeSplash included an element of fun. The instructors engaged my child, the other kids made him laugh, the curriculum wasn’t overly serious. He loved playing with the toys, the rings, and other tools introduced to help them grow more comfortable with the water.