Kids Swimming Lessons in Columbus | Goldfish Swim School

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Last summer’s Olympics were a big deal in our house. We got to experience everything through Liam’s eyes, then 2, and it was so fun. A few days after the swimming portion of the Olympics ended, I found Liam in tears in his room one morning. When I asked him what was wrong, he cried, saying that he wanted to take more swimming lessons. Seriously, this kid loved watching the USA Swimming team dominate their events, so I wasn’t super surprised by his wanting to take more lessons. We’ve now had the opportunity to take swimming lessons at three different places, most recently the Goldfish Swim School. If you’re local to me and are looking for a place for kids swimming lessons in Columbus, I wanted to give you my quick first impression of Goldfish and how it compares to the swimming lessons Liam’s had at other places.

Goldfish Swim School is now the third place Liam’s had swimming lessons. There are two different locations in the Columbus area. We are using the Westerville location, but there’s one in Dublin as well.

Liam’s first swim lessons were at the Westerville Community Center. We took a baby/parent class here with about 8 or so other baby/parent duos. His second session of classes were at a YMCA location. This was Liam’s first introduction to being in a swim class without a parent. The lessons at Goldfish are significantly more expensive than at any of the other places we’ve tried (and others we’ve looked at). But are they worth the price? From our first visit to the place, and according to other families we know that have taken swim lessons at Goldfish, the answer is an overwhelming YES.

I want to touch on the facility itself in another blog post and instead, spend time on three of the immediate differences we noticed at Liam’s first lesson at Goldfish. The most noticeable difference is the water temperature. If your little has taken swim lessons before, you may have noticed that the water temperature is….less than desirable. Actually, it’s pretty darn cold. It’s hard to ask a toddler to sit, shivering, in a pool for 30 minutes, let alone learn new skills.

I have no idea why this is the norm for public pools. Maybe it has to do with needing to keep the water at a certain temperature for people working out in the swim lanes. Regardless of the reason, it’s still cold!  And inconsistent. Some days it would just be cold. Other days it was downright freezing. At Goldfish, the water is kept around 90 degrees year-round. This keeps the kids comfortable enough to actually learn something.

The classes are Goldfish are also perpetual. They are big proponents of the idea that weekly instruction is best to help the child build on the things they learn at each lesson. I tend to agree. As far as I know, many of the other pools around town offer lessons on a seasonal/term basis. You sign up for a block of 6 or 8 lessons. Once they’re over, you either have to commit to another block of lessons or take a break and wait until a future term opens up. Having such a long break in between lessons may make it harder for your little to retain the skills they’ve learned. Since lessons at Goldfish are perpetual, you have lessons every single week as long as you want.

Committing to a block of lessons also made it really hard for our family to plan. We don’t have family in town and we like to travel. With our work schedules being super flexible, we don’t always wait until the weekend. When we have signed up for lessons at other places, you really have to commit to being there. The lessons can’t be rescheduled and you aren’t refunded for ones that you miss. Honestly, it’s one reason why we, personally, have taken breaks in between swim sessions. We wanted a break from feeling like we couldn’t go out of town during those 8 weeks.

Because Goldfish’s lessons are weekly with no set limit, it’s fairly easy to cancel your lesson and schedule makeup lessons, with no additional cost. I have yet to do it, but we will definitely be taking advantage of this perk with our upcoming adoption. We’ll be out of town for an undetermined amount of time and it’s nice knowing that Liam can easily make up those lessons when we come back. And that we’re not wasting money by not using lessons we’ve paid for.

As a parent, probably the most noticeable difference is how Goldfish Swim School makes a point to ensure that everyone’s on the same page to help your child learn. On our first trip to Goldfish, I was given a checklist of all the skills Liam needs to learn in his class. As he learns each skill, the boxes get checked until they’re all full. Once that’s done, he’ll be ready to move up to the next class. And we’ll get a new checklist then too.

I’m a list person and this is the perfect visual for parents to see exactly what their kids are learning. I spent several of my college years teaching piano lessons. I can’t tell you how many times I stressed to parents the importance of learning with their child. Especially in the early years. This list helps us do that too. We can see what Liam needs to be working on and practice it with him when we go to the pool.

At the end of each class, parents get to see their child demonstrate a couple of skills. The instructor also tells you more specifically where your child excels and is struggling. For instance, Liam has a hard time relaxing enough to float on his back. Knowing this, we can spend more time on practicing this between lessons. Again, it helps make sure everyone is on the same page.

Already I can see that switching to Goldfish Swim School was a great move for Liam. He’s really shown a lot of interest in swimming, so I’m excited to see him master each new skill. Who knows, maybe he’ll join their swim team someday! We’re only one lesson in and I can tell that it’s a great learning environment. I can’t wait to share more with you as we have additional lessons and learn more about Goldfish!

This post about kids swimming lessons in Columbus is part of our partnership with Goldfish Swim School. As always, all the photos, words and opinions in this blog are completely my own.