Miss Mermaid’s Swim School

I don’t write a lot of reviews but I really felt the need in this case to let other parents know about Nancy’s course. Like the previous reviewer, our son struggled at commercial swim schools. He was not progressing and the instructors were content to let him practice the same 3 or 4 things week after week, never pushing him to do more. We’d sit there frustrated, behind the glass, watching him treat the class as social time. After months of lessons, our 5 year old still lacked the confidence to float unassisted.
Well we just had our 5^th lesson with Nancy yesterday and I am thrilled to say that not only is he floating unassisted, he can flip over and float on his front and his back. It’s taking time to «unlearn» the improper techniques he had developed with his other lessons but he is gradually learning how to breathe properly, how to float, and how to tread water. Basic survival techniques that were not taught at any of his previous lessons. Nancy is a wonderful instructor who knows how to get the best out of him. She keeps the lessons entertaining and challenging. She doesn’t allow him to get away with half measures. She will stop him if she sees him doing an exercise improperly. She explains to him why she is stopping him and why she wants him to do it the way she does. When he finally executes the move perfectly, BOY DOES SHE CELEBRATE IT and I can see his face fill with pride at his accomplishment! Best of all, now that we are able to actually hear what is going on, we can better replicate and reinforce her lessons in our own pool.
I didn’t think we could afford private lessons but now that I see the difference in the level of instruction and how much can be accomplished in a short amount of time, I feel sick when I think about the $$$ we wasted at the big name swim schools.

Prior to finding finding Miss Mermaid, we had our 5 year old enrolled at Evo for a total of 7 months over a period of about 1.5 years. We took a break in between as he was getting bored and wasn’t making much progress at Evo. Then we found Nancy (Miss Mermaid). She is a triathlete and gives private lessons at her home in a salt water pool she recently put in. She has a multitude of certifications and we really liked her approach to teaching kids (and adults) how to swim. She does an excellent job of not just «showing» but also «explaining». After the first 30 minute lesson, our son was showing more progress than he did after the 7 months at Evo. The first thing she taught him to do was how to properly take a deep breath. It seems obvious, but Evo never gave him any instruction on this. By the end of lesson 1, she was also able to get him to do the correct «swimmers kick», which Evo never was able to do after 7 months. After 2 lessons, Nancy (Miss Mermaid) was able to get him to roll over on his back. She also began teaching him how to get to the edge of the pool in case he accidentally falls in. We really liked this as pool safety was never part of the Evo curriculum as far as we could tell. In lesson #3 at Miss Mermaid’s, Nancy continued to work on what he learned in the first 2 lessons, and she also started to teach him how to swim using his correct swimmers kick with his arms. She even started to show him the technique to tread water… ALL IN 3 LESSONS. If this isn’t enough to convince you, consider this: We paid Evo $ 72 per month which is about $ 15 — $ 18 per lesson, depending on if the month has 4 or 5 weeks. However, there are 4 kids in his 30 minute lesson. That works out to «7.5 MINUTES PER CHILD». What can you learn in 7.5 minutes? The rest of time they are standing at the edge of the pool being bored and cold. Miss Mermaid charges $ 20 for a «private» 30 minute lesson. Is it really worth your time and money to take your child for a 7.5 minute lesson? Our son’s next lesson will be a full 60 minutes. We love watching him progress, and more importantly, he says that he likes Miss Mermaid much better than Evo, which also makes a big difference in his learning.