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You Asked: Answers About Goldfish Swim School Lessons

Goldfish Swim School has been such a great asset to our weekly routine. We are so proud of the improvements both girls have made over the past few months. I posted for people to ask questions on my IG stories last week and here are the most asked questions answered for you.

Q: Is there time to just practice?

A: Not during their 30 min swimming lesson but they do offer free family swim from 12-1p Monday – Friday for members. They also have Family Night Out events once per month where you can spend $5/person, $15 max per family and enjoy snacks and swimming from 6:30-8p.

Q: How often do you go? Once a week or more?

Swim lessons are once per week but they also offer Jump Start Clinics. These clinics are 5 consecutive 30 minute lessons, same time, same instructor M-F.

Q: How long is each class cycle? Or year round classes?

Goldfish Swim School lessons are continuous rather than session-based. They believe a consistent approach to swimming is important for swim skill development and water safety awareness. Personally, we’re going year around to keep both girls confident in the water.

Q: What age do you recommend they start lessons?

4 months is the youngest they accept children for swimming lessons. We started Lilly at 6 months and it was amazing. Watching her learn and improve and be excited for lessons each week has been so fun! I wrote a post about our experience here.

Q: What are the age groups?

They go by skill level rather than age groups. You will give Goldfish Swim an idea of what your child’s abilities are and they will place them in the corresponding level. Throughout their classes there will be milestones they’ll need to hit and they’ll receive ribbons for achieving those goals. As they progress through the level they’ll then move up to the next and continue on with this cycle.

Q: What are the prices and how long does the program last?

Prices vary depending on skill level and location. Goldfish Swim School is all over the US. Check with your local swim school for pricing. Classes are indefinite until you cancel your membership. You must cancel 30 days in advance of your last lesson.

Q: At what age do they do classes by themselves without parents?

Classes are sorted by skill level rather than age. Junior 1 is the first level they’re able to be in the water without an adult. That class typically starts at age 3 with no prior swim instructions.

Q: What do you bring with you?

When we first started we brought all the things. We started during the winter and had our winter coats and boots and I carried a full diaper bag along with our swim bag. Now that I’ve wised up and the weather has warmed up we’re able to only take one bag. For us, with a 10 month old and 5 year old taking lessons we pack:
– 2 beach towels
– Wet bag for suits
– Swim cover ups (or underwear if we’re going somewhere after)
– Detangling spray and brush
– Goggles
– Quarters for a snack or candy
– Diaper

I’d love to answer any other questions you have about Goldfish Swim School or any other swim lesson related question. If you don’t currently have your kids in swim lessons, why not?

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Bedtime Routine for Baby with Burt’s Bees

This post has been sponsored by Burt’s Bees. All thoughts are opinions are my own.

As a second-time Mom, I feel like I’m re-learning parenting all over again. No baby is the same, and my two girls are definitely proof of this. For our 9 month old, it’s imperative that we have a full bedtime routine for her to have good sleep throughout the night. We can definitely tell when we rush or skip her routine.

Bedtime Routine for Baby

For us, there are four parts to our baby’s bedtime routine:

  1. Warm bath with Burt’s Bees Baby® Foaming Shampoo & Wash
  2. Lotion Lather with Burt’s Bees Baby® Ultra Gentle Lotion
  3. Snuggly 100% Cotton Sleeper
  4. Read a book

Reading to Baby

First, I want to talk about the last step of the evening. A lot of people think babies don’t need to be read to because they’re so young. I know, from my oldest daughter, that reading at a young age instills a love of reading. Reading to your baby will significantly improve their vocabulary and encourage speaking at an earlier age. Plus, that bonding one-on-one time is so important—especially when you have other children.

Warm Bath for Baby

We have been struggling with our baby’s sensitive skin since birth. She has eczema and without ever having to deal with it before it took a lot of trial and error to get her itchy skin in check. One thing that keeps her skin happy is a warm bath every other night (every night strips her of too many natural oils). With the Foaming Shampoo & Wash being truly fragrance-free it’s gentle cleansing is perfect for her hair and body. It is an easy pump for a Mom who may be juggling a slippery babe and never stings her eyes. The bath helps her skin be prepped for the next step which I think of as the moisture seal to keep the eczema at bay. TIP: You can earn up to $1.50 cash back on Burt’s Bees Baby® Sensitive products with the Free Ibotta® app.

Soothing Lotion for Baby

Once baby has been calmed down from the warm bath and her skin is still soft from the bath, lather on the Ultra Gentle Lotion all over. I will put a little extra on the problem areas so it’s a little thicker before putting on her outfit to make sure she has plenty in those spots. Both of these amazing Burt’s Bees products have the National Eczema Association seal of acceptance and now mine as well. I’m so picky about what chemicals I put on my kids and am so happy to have found these brand new products. Even better, I can easily grab them from Walmart when we go grocery shopping!

Snuggly Sleeper for Baby

Like most of us, our baby sleeps best when she’s comfy. For our house, this means a sleeper because we do not use a blanket in her crib. There are numerous reasons why I’m loving the Burts Bees footed pajamas but here are a few (not to mention, they’re super cute!):

-Elastic ankles to keep footies in place
-Non-slip “bee grip” on all sizes for extra stability
-Diagonal zip front for easy diaper changes
-Zipper guard, zipper garage, and snap tab at neck to protect delicate skin
-The purest layer™: 100% organic, GOTS certified, breathable cotton – great for sensitive skin and to prevent overheating

Next time you’re picking up your baby food at Walmart, check the baby section for the Foaming Shampoo & Wash and Ultra Gentle Lotion. I can’t speak for every baby in the world but I can say that I really wish we would have started our eczema journey here with Burt’s Bees Baby. I’m so happy we’ve found something that can keep our baby sleep soundly throughout the night. When used as a regimen, Burt’s Bees Baby® Sensitive Wash and Lotion help baby rest peacefully and improve quality of life by reducing dry skin that may cause irritation.

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When Should My Baby Start Swim Lessons

When Should My Baby Start Swim Lessons? When you’re a new mom, there are 1000 questions like this per day. ‘When should I start….’ When it comes to teaching babies safety, it’s so important to teach them as early as possible. At most swim schools you can take your babies as early as 6 months. We go to Goldfish Swim School and you can start lessons at 4 months! We started Lilly at 6 months and she has come such a long way in the 3 months we’ve been attending.

Goldfish-Baby-Swim-Lesson

5 Reasons to Start Your Baby in Swim Lessons

Aside from the obvious reason of starting early for safety’s sake, there are 5 other awesome reasons to start them young. Goldfish Swim School talks about the 5 reasons in class but I wanted to share with you how I’ve seen them work for our baby.

Balance

Core balance is crucial to little babies learning to sit up, crawl and eventually stand, walk and run! Lilly is in the crawling phase where she’s able to pull herself up on furniture and swim lessons have helped her shoulder muscles be strong enough to do that at an early age. She sits up on the ducky mats and learns to control her body while crawling on a floating mat. All of this core work out is essential for making sure she has excellent balance going forward.

Confidence

Babies, like us, fear what they are unfamiliar with. When we first started, Lilly was curious to watch others but not as interested in participating. Now, she’s splashing, kicking and pinching with the rest of the babies and squealing with excitement throughout. She’s now comfortable doing the sea otter float the entire length of the pool and back on my shoulder where a month ago she was constantly trying to sit up. Today, she leaned forward into my arms from sitting on the side. This was the first time she’s ever done this part of the class correctly! She’s confident in herself and bold enough to try new things!

Socialization

I am a stay-at-home parent. We get out a lot because that is my nature. I am used to exploring and adventuring with our oldest daughter so Lilly has become familiar with tagging along. At the same time, she doesn’t see many babies at the events we usually go to. At swim lessons she gets to see babies and it always makes her so happy to splash with them! It’s also a chance to be around a few adults which is always a plus.

Entertainment

It can be hard to fill the day with little ones who don’t yet speak. I remember being very lonely when I only had one baby (which is why I started this blog!) Swim days are now our favorite day of the week. All of us have a chance to move our bodies, get out of the house, learn new things and have fun! Swim days also make for the best nap days.

Building Strength

Swim lessons always seem to short to me but for babies they’re the perfect amount of time. 30 minutes is ideal for them to be active, learning, and exercising without being overstimulated. When you’re sleeping 12-14 hours per day, 30 minutes of exercise is substantial. My tiny swimmer has definitely gotten stronger through these lessons and is just weeks away from walking!

Are you ready to sign your child up for swim lessons? Goldfish Swim School has different levels for kids ages 4 months and older.

Find a location near you and sign up today!

Photo courtesy Goldfish Swim School Blog

Related Posts to When Should My Baby Start Swim Lessons:

Loving Our Hearts at Goldfish Swim School
Choosing the Right Activities for Your Kids

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8 Tips for Baking with Kids

This post is sponsored by Sprouts Cooking School with all tips and opinions being my own. Some links are Amazon Affiliate links.

8 Tips for Baking with Kids- As a Mom, my biggest tip to give other parents is to ‘just try.’ Life is messy with kids and never perfect. On the plus side, kids often like the messy things in life! Baking is one activity that parents shy away from when it comes to their kids. I hear excuses like ‘it’s too messy’, ‘it’ll go faster if I just do it’ and ‘she’s not able to do it yet.’ The funny thing is, they’re ready to do things before you think they are.

My daughter started baking as soon as she could stand on her own and understand my instructions. Once she hit 18 months and went to montessori school she was baking every week with her class. They would make hummus, muffins, lemonade and pizza. There are kid-friendly tools that are helpful for kids at a young age.

8 Tips for Baking with Kids

Sprouts-Cooking-School-Carmel

1. Get Kid-Friendly Tools for the Kitchen

Our favorite kid tool, and one Sophia still uses as a 5 year old, is the Wavy Chopper Knife It helps by allowing little hands to chop soft things like strawberries, bananas, hard boiled eggs as well as harder foods like carrots, celery and zucchini.

Small mixing tools for little hands like a miniature whisk, wooden spoon and spatula are all great for baking. You can buy them separately or as a set. Some have up to 11 different utensils for the kitchen. I love this Silicone Mini Kitchen Utensil Set.

There are also a lot of tools you already have in your house that are just the right size for little hands. A cheese grater, egg slicer, apple peeler, measuring spoons/cups and small colander are perfect. You don’t need to buy a full set of your utensils in miniature size for them to be able to bake with you. Most tools you use will work great for your child.

2. Get All the Ingredients Out

Lay out all of the ingredients on a clean surface with plenty of space.

3. Have All of Your Supplies Close at Hand

Make sure you have bowls, multiple spoons (one for each child), measuring cups and spoons, and cookie trays all out.

Place them close to each ingredient that they will be used to hold or measure. You can even order the ingredients on the table or counter so that you work left to right!

4. Be Prepared to Get Messy

Nothing would be worse than trying something new and having someone stopping you constantly because you’re making a mess.

Have paper towels handy and/or a wet cloth to wipe up spills right away.  Talk to your child ahead of time about how messes will be handled. Remember, it’s best to clean up as you go so there aren’t any slips but don’t do it in a way that it falters their confidence.

Baking with Kids-Tips-Shelly Bergman

5. Read the Recipe Together

Take a look at the recipe together and read it in it’s entirety. Make it clear who will be doing each step so no one feels left out. If you think there will be fighting over certain tasks, remind them that you can bake together again soon so they can do that task.

6. Make Sure the Recipe is Right for Your Child’s Age

If you’re baking with a first time toddler chef you’ll want to make the ingredient list smaller. If it’s a first time baker who’s in 5th grade you’ll be able to make the recipe a little more difficult. Make sure the recipe will keep their attention but not overwhelm them on their first try.

7. Make a Big Deal Out of Taste Testing

Kids are always more inclined to try new foods when they’ve had a part in selecting or cooking it. Taste and smell the ingredients as you bake. You can also make the final product tasting special by setting it up as a tea party or inviting a couple friends over to try it out.

8. Try a Kids Baking Class Together

If all of this seems overwhelming and you’re wanting to learn from the experts, try your hand at a parent-child cooking class. In our town, we have a kids cooking school called Sprouts Cooking School that is perfect for first time bakers. They offer child drop off classes, full week camps and parent-child classes.

Sprouts-Cooking-School-Carmel

I took Sophia, my 5 year old, to a Baking with Barbie class and both of us couldn’t wait to see what other classes we could take! The teachers had all the ingredients out and had three recipes the kids were going to prepare. The girls were ages 3-9 and they prepared everything from scratch other than the frosting! During their session they made Fruit Tarts, Mini Cupcakes and Edible Fingernail Polish Bottles. They were the perfect recipes for kids of those ages. I immediately signed her up for a week long summer camp themed ‘Once Upon a Time’.

Sophia will likely love it so much she’ll want to have her Birthday party there as well. Her Baking with Barbie class inspired her to want to host her own baking class at home with her cousins. We made up an invitation and found a few recipes we could all make together. Our cousin baking class can’t come soon enough!

What ways do you bake with your children? My husband and I always have our daughter help us with each other’s Birthday cakes as well as treats for the neighbors around Halloween and Christmas. I’d love to know some of your baking traditions!

Related Posts:

Kids Cooking Class at Sprouts
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Choosing the Right Activities for Your Kids

**This post is sponsored by Goldfish Swim School, though all opinions are my own.

Choosing the right activities for your kids is tough. On one hand, they may want to try every new sport and activity they see. On the other hand, they may not be interested in any activities. Both ways are tough. It’s also tough to determine how many activities to choose.

And, as parents, we like to keep our kids busy and active by learning new things. Hopefully they’ll find a hobby or passion they love. Sports and activities help our children with communication, sharing, team work, expressing themselves, confidence and so much more. But how much is too much?

How Many Activities is Right?

Overscheduling your child can lead to stress, anxiety and burnout, not to mention it can drain your family budget and precious down-time together. That being said, each child and family dynamic is different. I recently saw a quote that said ‘children do not say that they’re anxious, they say their stomach hurts.’

Our daughter was saying her stomach hurt in the mornings every day before Daddy went to work. For weeks we tried omitting foods like milk, yogurt and eggs, trying to figure out if she had sensitivity to these foods. Her tummy troubles had nothing to do with her diet but that she hated when our family wasn’t all together.

Listen to the ques. If your child is more cranky than normal. If they’re super quiet or super needy. Maybe they flat out tell you they don’t like a certain activity. Listen to the ques. We want to instill tenacity in them but at the same time we don’t want to burn them out.

What We Do

For our family, because our daughter is 5, we say she can do one activity at a time. If she’s in dance class she can’t also be in ninja class. We have one exception to this rule and that is swimming lessons. Without this rule, our daughter (and I) would feel resentment toward the activities because of all the time required.

We don’t see swimming lessons as a sport or activity but rather a ‘life saving lesson’. Her Goldfish Swim School lessons are only 30 minutes and they’re focused lessons on her specific skill. There is a 1:3 ratio in her class so she gets a lot of attention and feedback on what she needs to improve. Because of how their ribbon rewards system and their small coach to swimmer ratio she’s motivated and confident for each swim lesson.

family staycation at conrad indianapolis

What Activities Are Right?

Again, this question has many factors. How old is the child, what are you trying to instill in them through this activity and what are they hoping to gain from the experience? If they want to do X activity because Jimmy is doing it, that may or may not be the right activity for your child. Growing up, my sister loved gymnastics. All of her friends were in gymnastics and she loved going. Unfortunately, her body just didn’t bend like a gymnast. It was painful on her body and my parents decided to have her try a new sport. At the time, it was really hard for my sister but the sport she chose to replace gymnastics ended up being her passion through high school. She now coaches her daughter’s soccer team because she loves the sport.

Keep in mind that just because you or your child’s siblings played a sport does not mean it’s the best for your other children. Explore your options. A good way to explore options is through summer camps or Sports Legends Experience at the Children’s Museum. They’re able to try lots of different activities to figure out what interests them.

Sophia-Baseball-Sports-Legends-Experience

Summer camp is the only time of year that we do a few different activities at once. This summer Sophia and Lilly will continue with their swim lessons but Sophia will also be doing several different camps from cooking to art to nature. This will give us time for her to explore what she likes most without having the time commitment of school.

Let me know how you decide what activities and how many activities your children are in. What kind of signs have you seen in them that they’re either doing too much or not enough?

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Loving Our Hearts at Goldfish Swim School

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