Last Fridays class was a free taster session to help with recruitment so I didn't have to shell out any pennies at all which suits me perfectly & Evie loved it. The session took place in a hydrotherapy pool which meant that it was above 30 degrees C & the changing room was also lovely & warm which is really important for babies.
There were 9 babies at the class & we were all shown the sort of things that we would expect to learn if we enrolled our children on the water babies course. We sang little songs, started to get our little ones used to having water on their face & used to keeping their head up when 'swimming' on their tummy. The other, & perhaps more important, thing that we were shown was how the classes help teach children how to save themselves from drowning.
The whole session was fascinating but I didn't sign up straight away because I wanted to take Evie to our local pool to see how a £3.50 hour swimming session compared to a £13.50 half hour swimming lesson (yes water babies is that expensive). Our local pool's under five session is on a Friday at 2 so I had to wait until yesterday to get her back in the water.
The first difference is that, even though the pool was hotter than it would be on a normal swim session, Evie had to wear her BabyWrap wetsuit (RRP £17.99) - without it her lips were blue her hands & feet were mottled which made me really nervous. Similarly the changing rooms were freezing so we had to really snuggle keep warm. I like snuggles but I don't like worrying so that was a massive negative.
Our local pool is a great location & size though so even though there were lots of people in the pool we swam happily while practicing everything we had learnt in our Water Babies taster session.
Here is where I would like to tell you that I am going to choose the 'thrify' route & teach Evie to swim on my own at our local pool, but I can't do that because the truth is that I was really very impressed with the taster session last week: It was professional & clean, Evie learnt such a huge amount in such a short session & my confidence with her in the water was so much more than when we were at our local pool.
I'm super curious about what she will learn & how she will progress week by week. I really wish that the classes were cheaper but there was truthfully no other reason not to sign up. I felt so proud watching Evie in the pool & despite being the most frugal person I know I believe the course will be well worth the £135 price tag. I'll be signing up on Monday.
