Who's Who at LPB

Communication is the key to so many things, and swim lessons are no different. It's important for parents and students to have a good understanding of how much they've accomplished and what elements they need to accomplish. LPB has multiple avenues for parents to get this 'intel' on their child's swimming:

• Deck Support: The Deck Support provides feedback and support for teachers. They oversee general safety, class progress and teacher performance. They serve as the liaison between parents and teachers through both written and verbal communication. Still not sure who this is? Just ask at the Swimformation desk or look for their name which is posted on the deck
• Parent-Teacher Communication Form: Want to send your teacher an email? Fill our the Parent-Teacher Communication Form on our website and your teacher will respond before your next lesson. 
• Progress Report: Want a physical report on your student's progress? Request a progress report either online through the Parent-Teacher Communication Form or through your Deck Support.
• Director on Duty: Have a question or concern regarding your experience at LPB? Ask to speak with the Director on Duty, their name is posted by the Swimformation desk.
• Online Feedback: We want to hear from you! Please contact us online through the "Feedback" form so we can address your concern.
• Whale Done! Do you love your teacher? Fill out a "Whale Done" at the Swimformation desk. These cute postcards are shared with the entire staff, including management as well as the teacher earning the praise. We love getting Whale Dones!

Still not sure who to talk to? Here's a who's-who at LPB:

• Site Director: Oversees location, director of management.
• Director on Duty: Manager of any given shift, handles questions or concerns about policies, procedures or staff.
• Deck Support: Maintains curriculum quality, provides feedback and support to teachers. Liaison between teachers and parents and tracks student progress.
• Swim Support: Jumps in to substitute and when a student needs a little extra help.
• Swimformation: Customer service representatives who handle scheduling and booking as well as general questions.

So.....questions? Just ask! We're always happy to help!

Crying and Swim Lessons

Parents often ask us "how much crying is normal in swim lessons?" The answer? There is no "normal" in swim lessons! While watching your child cry can be torture for any parent, we all know  a tearless childhood is impossible not to mention unnatural.

Crying is actually a good, healthy and normal human response. Infant cries act as alarms for parents, alerting them to pain, hunger, or discomfort. In general, a feeding/burping, diaper change or a good nap can comfort an infant's cries.

As children grow and develop crying also becomes a form of emotional communication. It's important for parents and teachers to identify why the child is crying in order to find a solution for the tears. At LPB we train our teachers to identify these types of crying:

• Fear: Clinging to the teacher, island or side of the pool, shaking, can sometimes be silent/no tears
• Separation anxiety: Reaching for, crying for caregiver
• Anger: Hitting, splashing, kicking, yelling or other aggressive behavior
• Pain/Discomfort: Water in the nose, grabbing nose, pulling nose, crying immediately after submerging
• Tired/Hungry: Lethargic, clingy, steady cry, yawning, etc...

Once we've identified the cause (or causes) of the crying, we work together with the Deck Support and caregiver and come up with a plan of action. For example:

• A fearful student needs to gain his instructors trust. We can put in an extra teacher to allow the fearful student extra one on one time with his teacher to help emphasise that the student is safe.  Lots of promises are made and kept here, "We're going to kick in the tube now, and I won't let go". No tricks allowed, just bonding.
• Students suffering from separation anxiety also need to form a trusting bond with their teacher. An extra teacher may get in, or we may play let's make a deal: "If you stop crying, mommy can stay on the deck. But if you're crying mommy has to go to the viewing room". The idea here is that the students' emotions can be distracting when the caregiver is nearby, making it difficult for them to build trust with their teacher.  Again, no tricks here....as soon as you stop crying, mommy comes right back out.
• Then there are the students who are just plain angry! This wasn't their idea, they don't like it and they're gonna let us know. We see this every so often; these students have passion, determination and the ability to express themselves (not surprisingly, they often turn out to be our most confident, strong swimmers). Teachers are trained to avoid power struggles with these angry students, and to continue sending the message that they are OK and it's time to swim.
• Pain or discomfort is most commonly caused by water in the nose. At LPB we use all types of tools and methods to avoid this because... it hurts! We use "nose huggers", snorkel masks and teach "Balloon Faces" to help seal off the sinuses and prevent water in the nose.
• Sometimes students may cry simply because they're tired or hungry. In these cases we discuss the possibility of adjusting class time to accommodate nap or feeding schedules. Sometimes it's just a one off situation...like being too tired after spending a week in Disneyland for example. 

While crying for months on end is not common, we typically see a decrease in crying after about 4 weeks of consistent attendance. Even if it means your child didn't cry the last 5 minutes of class, that's something to celebrate!

Teamwork between LPB staff and the parents/caretakers is crucial in getting these students over the hump. Children need their parents to be guiding beacons in times of uncertainty. Here's what we ask from YOU:

• Arrive to class 10-15 minutes early: Rushing in the door in a panic doesn't help calm an anxious student. Watch the other students swimming and point out what fun they're having in their class!
• Consistent attendance: Coming to class each week sends a message to your child that "you are OK". Inconsistency sends them a message that swimming isn't important or safe. 
• Talk it up! Be sure to use positive language when talking about swimming around your child. It won't help them to hear you tell another parent "Johnny is freaked out about swimming". Instead try, "Johnny is being very brave at swim class, each week he's having more and more fun with Teacher Anya".
• Be the cheerleader: After swim class, point out a specific thing you saw your child do that was fun, successful, brave, etc... For example, "I was really proud of you for giving Teacher Anya a hug at the end of class....isn't she nice?". Or, "I saw you make a big splash when you were playing on the magic carpet!"
• Family Swim: Take advantage of our FREE Family Swim times offered several times a week at all 4 locations. You can attend any Family Swim at any location. Swimming in a more casual setting can help students acclimate to the environment. This also sends the message that you are on board with swimming in general. 

So, why stick with it? Why not just quit, take a break or wait until your child is older? Because drowning is the #1 cause of accidental death for children under the age of 5 in California. For more on this, please read last week's entry below. Not every child needs to learn how to play the piano, but every child needs to learn how to swim.

Happy Splashing!

Drowning: The Real Risk

Imagine you're getting ready to come home from the hospital and you don't have your infant car seat. You just haven't gotten around to it. Maybe you'll get one when baby turns 3. No biggie, just hold your baby on your lap, or strap them into a seat belt, right? 

This is obviously absurd (not to mention illegal). Parents today are well aware of the importance of car seat safety, in fact many of us consider ourselves "die hard" on the issue. My sister (mother of 6) is known for doing safety checks on her friends car seats...ripping them out of their cars and reinstalling them herself. She prides herself on making sure that if you try to wiggle the car seat, the entire car should shake -- not the car seat itself. We're all just keeping our children safe, you know just "in case".

While parents are "die hard" on the issue of car seat safety, many are "missing the boat" on an even bigger threat to saving their child's life: water safety.

Drowning is the #1 cause of accidental death for children under the age of 5 in the US. 

That's right. Believe it or not, your child has a greater risk of drowning than they do of dying in a car accident.  "But we live in an urban city..." you say "...we don't own a swimming pool, so there's no real risk." This is like saying you don't need a car seat for your child because "We're safe drivers". 

Children drown everyday in all different bodies of water: buckets, toilets, bath tubs, fountains, koi ponds, hot tubs, etc. I myself have witnessed first hand a child falling head first into a fountain at a shopping mall. Another devastating example of this is when a local toddler drowned in a fountain in downtown San Francisco, with dozens of adults including a nanny and parent in the vicinity (click here for article). 

Accidents happen...car accidents, drowning accidents, fires, you name it. But the greatest risk of them all is drowning (click here for CDC report).

Formal swim lessons can reduce the risk of drowning up to 88%, according to the CDC.

What can you do as a parent to help protect your child from drowning? At La Petite Baleen we promote the Safer 3:

• Safer Kids: Safer Kids covers the behaviors necessary for both kids and parents to promote water safety. These water safety tips include constant responsible supervision by adults, along with swimming skills attained through ongoing qualified instruction for kids.
• Safer Water: Safer Water means identifying where the risks are with any body of water (bathtubs, pools, spas, lakes, rivers or oceans) and learning how to reduce those risks. For example installing barriers such as isolation fencing around a backyard pool would reduce the risk of unauthorized access to the pool by young children.
• Safer Response: Safer Response overviews emergency response techniques and emergency action plans as a path to water safety. Learning cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and first aid, as well as having a phone by the pool at all times, are just a few of the water safety tips covered here.

Often times we hear parents say, "He's just not ready for swim lessons yet" or "He cried in class so we'll just wait until he's older". Our response to that is, what do you do when your child protests being strapped into his car seat? We've all been there...you know the back arching, kicking and screaming fit that often ensues when a toddler doesn't want to be strapped in. What's your response to this as a parent? "Oh, we'll just let him bounce around the back seat until he's older"? I think not. 

The same attitude must apply when it comes to swim lessons. Here at LPB we specialize in making swim lessons and safety fun. We use games, songs and LOTS of toys to distract our young students. Before you know it, they're happily swimming. While it sometimes involves some tears and protest, the payoff is priceless when it comes to your child's safety. 

That's right, swim lessons are just as important as buckling your child into a car seat. 

Now, we're not claiming that swim lessons alone will prevent your child from drowning. Just like carseats cannot prevent your child from being in a car accident, swim lessons are a layer of protection in preventing a drowning. Again, the principles of the Safer 3 must be put into place to eliminate risk of drowning.

Each May, we host our annual "Summer Safety Week" where we educate parents and students on the risks of drowning. We discuss different bodies of water, give safety reminders, discuss barriers with parents and rules with students. For more on our summer safety week, click here.

Together with our community, we must commit to making our children safer around water. It starts with you, the parent. Make the right decision when it comes to your child's safety, enroll in lessons today.

Adults Swimming

 SWIMMING,THE KEY TO HAPPINESS

                                                                                                  By Tarny Davies,  June 2014

Want to feel more content, less grumpy and finally get a good night's sleep? A report from femaleforst.co.uk/swimming found that taking a regular dip at your local pool can make you feel happier as well as healthier, with participants reporting an increase of 85% in positivity during a major new four week study.

The results have also shown that the low impact sport is a tonic for everyday life, increasing levels of sleep quality ( 40% ) and energy levels  ( 51% ) and fitness levels ( 15% ) during the

course of the study.

Just a few laps a week can have an almost immediate effect, with those donning their swimsuits seeing an increase of 20% in their overall levels of well-being after just one week.These levels were maintained for the duration of the study, peaking again at 29% in the final week, found by the British Gas SwimBritain.

ADULT SWIM:

1. The only real fountain of youth is the water.

2. Dealing with a suffocating liquid, as in good breath control while swimming, is real swimming. If you are going  across the pool and out of breath, you probably are just holding your breath. In order to exercise well in the water you need to learn how to breath correctly.

3. The last exercise anyone can do is swim. The water is gentle on the joints and keeps lung capacity healthy.We are living longer and land sports become increasingly difficult on the body.It increases our immune systems as we get older, when immune systems decline without exercise.

La Petite Baleen does adult lessons. The warm water and caring teachers can get you up and swimming no matter how frightened you are , or,  if you had a bad experience in water. 

Be a happy splasher and learn how enjoyable and healthy swimming lessons can make you. Talk to Swimformation!

Book Review by Irene

Two amazing books crossed my path regarding topics near and dear to my heart: meaningful quality of life...and everything I can learn and KNOW about children.

Dr Stephanie Brown ,  whom I was lucky to meet recently, just published a book called, " SPEED ...Facing Our Addiction to Fast and Faster--and Overcoming Our Fear of Slowing Down. The next day on Good Morning America, Emma Jenner was interviewed for her new book, " Keep Calm and Parent on ". 

I immediately connected the dots between the two books because they both had some   common themes including :  we are not living in the moment, thus we are missing living at all, and, we have left common sense far behind.

Dr Brown noticed that Silicon Valley had delivered a gift of electronics that promised to allow us to save time. Indeed it can. But what happened to us and spread quickly to the rest of the world was, I can do more...and more..and, the price became addiction to more, the future, and even  more, leaving families disconnected, divided and abandoned. The fear of not enough, staying ahead of 'whatever' , drove people to miss life right now. Our definition of success was materialistic

and we did not realize that not only were we becoming addicted to this impossible race, we could not  understand a deeper happiness. More and more addictions pop up to bandaid our emptiness.

Pausing, slowing down, changing disconnection with small steps ( often called the 'Kaisen Effect') is a healthy, effective way to finding our real selves and real lives again.

Dr Peter Grazzeley, a neuroscientist from UCSF, talks about the " Myth of Multi-tasking "  and underscores how our brains can only do one thing at a time, with high performance. In an older blog I talk about his DVD. 

In the Jenner book, this international nanny from England, shares  common sense ways of helping parents and children come to respect the best ways to give children fair and appropriate boundaries, limited choices and approaches to common problems so that children grow up understanding real coping skills come from within.  These kinds of children are grounded, do not develop high anxiety that does occur when parents abdicate their decision-making roles.

Something I learned from Dr Grazzely is: the pre-frontal cortex, the discernment and decision making area of the brain does not fully develop until 25-26 yrs of age. If a parent allows  a child to have  her/his way out of something, that gives a small child too much power. They do not have the tools to make important decisions regarding their safety or health. Anxiety prevails, and in fact, continues to be a growing mental health concern today.

Skillful parenting takes time and effort but as the child matures, family time is high quality. Because of our fast and faster paced lives, we look for short-cuts to " get things done", but at a steep price. Jenner proves that work up- front provides meaningful family life and , ultimately happier and healthier children. ( see my blog on sugar! ).

In the last couple of months I have  seen a trend of conscious slowing down. Let's hope we see this trend grow stronger.In the meantime, press the PAUSE button , breathe deeply and engage with your loved ones.

Irene

Babies brain: Decision making, eye contact

Here is extensive knowledge from many Infant Research sources. In addition, there are even more studies, including Dr Peter Grazzeley's, who heads a brain lab at UCSF and has cutting edge information on how the brain works. His most recent DVD ( you can purchase it from KQED ), " The Myth of Multi-tasking " reveals what is happening with electronics being such a strong presence in our lives as both adults and children.

Babies brains are far more cognizant than we previously thought. " Science is now giving us a much different picture of what goes on inside infant hearts and minds. Long before they form their first words they are mastering complex emotions ---jealousy, empathy,frustration....Babies as young as 4 months have advanced powers of deduction....a strikingly nuanced visual palette, which enables them to notice small differences, especially in faces, that adults and older children lose the ability to see."

Ed note: This is why it is very important to have strong eye contact with younger children, whether you are in a baby and me class, or watching from the deck. Over praising is not good but just seeing them, connecting with our eyes, give children a sense of self, an important emotional growth factor.

" When infants near their first birthdays, they become increasingly sophisticated social learners.They begin to infer what others are thinking by following their gaze."

Ed note: More eye contact creates better emotional development. The small games we play in our infant/toddler levels at La Petite Baleen, are conducive to increasing emotional skills.

I have talked about dog paddle being a strong agent for brain growth. Alternate movement of arms and legs create more synapses across the midline of the brain. Later, the brain prunes neurons that don't have connections. The accuracy of sensory visuals allows babies to have trusting relationships, starting at 4 months.

Nathan Fox from the University of Maryland," parenting style has a big impact on what kind of adult  a child will turn out to be. Parents of over-protective children, or those who didn't encourage them to overcome shyness and childhood anxiety, often remain shy and anxious as adults. Behaviorally inhibited kids are aslo at higher risk for other problems."

Ed note: Dr Grazzelley's research shows MRI's  of children from 5 to 20 yrs of age. The pre-frontal cortex is the decision-making and discernment area of the brain. It doesn't fully develop until age 25-26. It t underscores that parents must not ask children to make important decisions such as swim lessons. It creates anxiety and entitlement and coping skills are weak. Give children a foundation for making limited choices until children show they can do more.

" Children crave --and thrive--on interaction, one-on-one time and lots of eye contact....A child's social, emotional and academic life begins with..the first time baby locks eyes with you"

No Shirt, No Shoes...No Problem!

At LPB, safety is our number one priority, including UV protection. While our indoor pools are UV ray free, it's important for parents to remember the basic guidelines of sun protection when swimming outside:

- Apply sunscreen 10-15 minutes BEFORE swimming:

I can't tell you how often I see parents show up at outdoor pools and proceed to spray their kids with sunscreen and send them straight in the pool. Not only is this a waste of money and bad for the pool chemistry, but it is also putting your child at risk of sunburn and UV damage.

How do you keep your kids from getting right in the pool? You apply the sunscreen at home, in the hotel room, or in the car before driving to the pool. The most effective way to do this is when your child is completely naked, but since that's not always possible, having them wear their swimsuit is next best. 

-Reapply every 60 minutes:

I find that my kids get hungry, cold or tired within an hour of swimming anyway, so it's a good idea to call them out at least once an hour. Some pools have this built into their program with "adult swim" breaks. We think adult swim is a GREAT idea...it gives little swimmers the chance to use the toilet (please!), get a snack and re-apply sunscreen. 

I usually have my kids get out, dry off and give them a snack. While they're eating, I use spray to reapply on their bodies and sunscreen sticks for their faces. . After they finish snack, we hit the potty and by then at least 10-15 minutes has gone by. 

-Swim shirts rule! But please, not in our pool:

While swim shirts and rash guards offer the best protection agains harmful UV rays, they can have a negative affect a child's swimming abilities. Please be sure that these shirts are snug fitting, not loose. The looser they are, the more drag and resistance they create in the water, which can pull children down and cause them to sink. In fact, in safety training, one of the first things you're supposed to do if you fall off a water craft or pier fully dressed is to take off your shirt and shoes. 

If your child normally swims without a swim shirt and you want her to wear a swim shirt outdoors, be sure to do some warm up swims so she can get a feel for what it's like swimming with the extra drag.

Another word of caution with swim shirts is that they can contribute to hypothermia. Wearing a wet shirt can increase the risk of hypothermia (http://www.adventuresportsonline.com/skihypo.htm). When your child gets out of the pool and his teeth are chattering, lips are turning blue or is slurring his speech, take off his swim shirt right away!

When swimming at LPB, we discourage swim shirts altogether. First of all, there are no harmful UV rays in our indoor facilities. Secondly, they can restrict students ability to swim by causing drag and increase resistance making it difficult for them to swim. Please...leave the swim shirts in your swim bag when swimming at LPB. They are not making your child warmer in our 90 degree water, and there's no need for UV protection indoors. 

On the topic of drag caused by swim shirt:

Swim shorts have the same effect on boys swimming as rash guards. Long and baggy swim shorts or "board shorts" make it much more difficult for students to swim. We recommend "speedo" or "jammer" style swimsuits for boys. Need another reason? Speedos and jammers don't cause chaffing like shorts do!

Girls suits should also fit snuggly. Straps should be tight enough to pull up to the earlobes, but no more. ONE PIECE SWIM SUITS are most appropriate for swim lessons as they fit little bodies better than two piece swimsuits. Crossback or racer back style is preferred. This way our swimmers can concentrate more on swimming and less on their swimsuit falling off!

-- 

Anya Hall

Curriculum and Marketing Manager

La Petite Baleen Swim Schools