Never to late to learn… or is it? This statement might not be true when talking about water saftey and kids, from swimming pools and any body of water. The earlier they learn the safer they will be. Read my account of swimming lessons for my toddler.

As a mom, the topic of my child and swimming lessons is something I feel terribly guilty about. I have known for such a long time the value of early swimming and pool safety for my child. But did I act on it… no…. did I forget about it at times… yes.  Life just happened, weeks, turn into month, and a year goes by, and I have a 2 year old that has not learnt any pool safety at all.

Wow did the weight of that sit on my shoulders heavily. I would use every excuse, like blame the fact that I am working mom, and I don’t have time. Or we will start in summer, or we can just teach her ourselves. But all those things I was telling myself were just not cutting it anymore. One day I was sitting on Instagram scrolling through some InstaStories, and a couple moms were proudly posting about their tots doing swimming lessons and how well they were doing… then it happened… the guilt rose again! This time I was not going to just wait and then next week etc… you know how it goes. I immediately did some investigating of local swim schools in our area, and signed her up.

So now we go every Saturday, and Skylar loves it, like really loves it. I was apprehensive on the first day of how she would react. Each child is different, and yours and mine, might not approach a new situation the same. Lucky (or sometimes not so lucky), my kid suffers from major FOMO, and needs to do whatever she sees older kids doing.

Therefore I arrived a bit early to let her watch what was happening and get familiar with her surroundings. When it was her big moment to dip into the pool, I thought…. Here we go… but nope… she LOVED it. I am by no means an expert of swim lessons for your child, and mine is no pro just yet. But her progress week to week has been amazing. I thought she would forget the lessons and it would take her forever to learn certain things.

This past weekend she did what she has been doing lately “do it self”, “do it self” and did not want the swim instructor to hold her.

Moms if you are thinking about enrolling your child in swim lessons and can afford it, I highly recommend it. Our school is just under R300 a month, believe me that money is well spent and if I could send her for two lessons a week I would.

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I also think important to make a big deal of it. Before her first lesson I spoke about it to her, and showed the costume she would be using. Each week I would chat to her about lessons, and asked her what she learnt and who her teacher is etc. She was so chuffed with the package we received from Spurt SA with her pink swimming cap and goggles. (We also received nose plugs, but she is too small to use those yet). Now each Saturday she makes sure I have packed her “Cap n gogils”, there is no fuss putting them on, I think she totally thinks she is a “big girl” with them on.

In celebration of summer – and the school holidays – I have put together a Summer Starter Giveaway for your toddlers (its works for both boys and girls).

Please go and enter on my Instagram page.

• Prizes are from:
• Spurt SA (swimming cap, goggles and nose plugs)
• BioNike (Defence Sun 50+ Spray, Baby & Kids fluid & melting cream)
• Madi+Me (towel poncho)
• Hello Poppet Clothing (toddler sun hat)

Worth over R1500

Summer Starter Giveaway – Terms and Conditions.

• This competition is not associated to Instagram
• Only open to South African Residents
• Must enter on Choose a Row Instagram profile – post about the giveaway
• Follow the instructions given to have a valid entry
• The winner will be notified and name published on the Choose a Row Instagram page.
• Giveaway closes 13 December
• Prize will be sent from Choose a Row
• No items chan be exchanged or request a cash alternative
• The items are intented for a toddler