Thoughts about Becoming a Swim Teacher

Posted at April 24, 2009

I decided to become a swim teacher so that I can teach my kids to swim. As you know, I have three kids and none of them have been really interested in taking formal swimming lessons. So I decided to learn to teach, do my hours as a student teacher and teach my own kids. A little like home schooling. As I am working interacting with other instructors, I shared an interesting conversation with one of the instructors.

The process of becoming a swim instructor with the Canadian Red Cross involves instruction classroom and pool time and about 20 hours of student teaching. I was talking to another instructor about my plans of teaching my own kids and not getting a job teaching other kids. His comment was “Do you think you have enough experience to do that?” I was a little caught off guard with that comment. The instructors themselves went through the same course as I am, and they start teaching right away. We have the same qualifications starting out.

I thought about that a little more, recalling comments from my instructor and other instructors. As I have been a mother for 8 years, I am very comfortable around children and work well with them. I have been teaching my own kids new things and feel blessed that I will still be able to teach them a new specialized skill. The instructors know that I want to be learning versus just getting a job for money. Sometimes motherhood is a little over looked!

I feel fortunate that I will be able to teach my own kids to swim. I have worked personally with over 10 different instuctors over the last few months and have learnt many good teaching methods. I think I am equipted to teach my own kids. Unfortunately I have realized that I do not want some of these instructors to teach my kids. How will you know this a as a parent? There is no way of knowing, just observing the class. Just like there is no way of knowing what kind of teacher your child has. This is not scare anyone it is just reality. Be involved with your kids.

I went through primary school with a teacher that dispised me and call me a tatter tale because I told my parents what had happened in class. Do you want to have open communication with your child? Be attentive to you children! Oops, I went off topic. Teaching my kids to swim is another way for me to spend more time with my children. They can progress at their own pace and not feel too much pressure that they have to perform. There are so many other stresses in your kids life, swimming doesn’t have to be one of them. It is a great sport so enjoy it.