This post is brought to you by Goldfish Swim School

Two months have FLOWN by, and it’s hard to believe that the girls are now done with their swimming lessons at Goldfish Swim School! On one hand, it feels like we just started and on the other hand its hard to believe how much my girls have progressed with their swimming skills!

As I mentioned in my last post, Emmeline was an okay swimmer without any real fear of the water. However, she could only swim under the water and wasn’t able to float at all. Those were the two areas that I really wanted her to improve in, I discussed that with her (wonderful) instructor, Melissa at the beginning, and two months later she is swimming above water and floating like a pro! I am so proud of her, and most importantly - she is proud of herself! Goldfish rewards their students with ribbons when they achieve certain goals or hit specific milestones, and my Emme would just beam with so much pride when she received one of those ribbons! In my experience, kids need a little tangible recognition when they achieve a goal, and Goldfish’s ribbon recognition system is a really great way to do that.

When Cecilia started at Goldfish Manalapan in May she had never swam without a puddle-jumper, she had no fear of the water, and no clue about water safety. To be honest, our focus in the pool had really been on getting Emme up to par so that she could break free from the puddle-jumper and swim on her own and Cece just kind of floated along, trying to keep up with her sis. My goal for her was to learn pool safety. I wasn’t expecting her to learn how to swim on her own in two months - I just wanted her to learn some basic skills so that she would know what to do if she was in water without her flotation device. My favorite part of her beginner class was towards the end of each class when the instructors would have them hold on to the pool edge and pull themselves hand over hand along the wall and then up onto the side - it sounds so simple, but those are such important skills that little ones need to know! Cece also learned to float on her own which is more than I could have asked for! If you watch those infant/toddler pool safety videos, you see that they teach the child how to float so that in the event they jump or fall in a pool and cannot swim, they know how to float independently until an adult can rescue them. Way to go, Cece (and thanks Melissa)!

Overall, our experience at Goldfish was an excellent one! The facility and instructors are amazing! Both of my girls had Melissa at the Manalapan location, and she was exceptional with them - so patient and she really focused on their individual development each week. As I mentioned in my last post too, the space is so child friendly in the way that it is set-up and decorated and very parent friendly with the large viewing area and spacious and clean changing area.

We will miss Goldfish Swim School, but I know that the girls will take the lessons they learned with them throughout their lives! Thanks Goldfish!