Swim Lessons

Two weeks of swimming lessons have wrapped up for the summer.

My very first client when I started this business almost seven years ago is a school teacher, so she gets the summer off.  It also just so happens that she worked many summers teaching swimming and being a life guard while she was in college.

For five years or so she's been teaching swim lessons at my home every summer.  Every parent interested can enroll their child in swim lessons that happen during the day while the kids are already here, and that money goes toward paying for daycare for the swim teacher in the fall.  This works especially well for her, since teachers get paid monthly, and at the end of the pay period, so it's a long dry summer for her, and school (and thus daycare) starts before she starts getting paid.

All in all, a win-win for all!

So our 5th year of swim lessons have wrapped up for the summer.  Only a couple kids (hers and mine) have been here for all five years, but everyone this year had been here for at least two years.  It is amazing to see the progress.

This is the first year that we've done the lessons every day for 2 weeks.  In the past, it's been once or twice a week for 6-8 weeks.  I believe the daily lessons have been so much easier on the kids.  For the couple of kids that I had that were afraid of the water, by the third day in the water, they were over that and ready to do anything the teacher asked. It helps tremendously that she is such a good teacher.

I have had several kids who are not in my care, but have heard about the lessons, come just for the lessons.  One of these had taken her child to another teacher previously.  She ended up coming back the following year just because my parent/swim teacher was so much more effective and got so much more out of the kids.  (Her words.)

All I know is that my son has never been to any other swim lessons, and has been swimming for three years now.  This from being scared of the water his first two years and being afraid of getting his face wet!  Now he's a little fish, and can swim freestyle, backstroke, elementary backstroke, and this year they learned the breast-stroke.

For someone who doesn't swim (me) this is all amazing and cool.  And, it makes my pool a partial write-off!  Yay!

Networking

Finally, after many months of planning, and over a year of considering, I finally held the first Folsom/El Dorado Hills family child care provider's networking meeting last night.  It was designed to be a social setting, with wine and snacks, where providers could compare experiences, ideas, and stories.

I sent the invitation through e-mail, which probably isn't the best way to reach providers, but is cheaper and easier than paper mailings.  It is probably still more effective even for those that don't use e-mail often, considering how much mail is junk.  Out of the 50+ e-mail addresses I had, I got 10 yes, and 9 no responses.  Most of the non-responders didn't view the e-vite, so I probably had a bad e-mail address or they may not be doing daycare anymore.

Of the 10 yes responses, 6 actually came.  I'm not sure if that is a good turnout, but I'll try again in October to see if we get a better response.  Some of the no's did express interest, even though they were not available this week, and I plan on following up with phone calls to see how many of the ones that didn't respond are even in business any longer.

I'm hoping to form a group that will bring together the providers in a network that can mentor, share ideas, refer, and otherwise share in what is a solitary profession.  The benefit of bringing together experience and creativity to a field where each provider is generally responsible for learning and doing on her own far outweighs the inconvenience of one more commitment every quarter.  But that's just my opinion.

I guess it remains to be seen if anyone else will agree!