From: Julie Subject: [workmom] Compiled List - Infant/Child Swimming Lessons Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 15:40:30 -0500 Note of interest by one mom: "Just speaking from a physician point of view, there is a line of thinking that it is not necessarily good for a baby under 6 months to do swimming, secondary to inhalation of chlorine gases." Connection in Summit "swimming lessons Tiny Tugboats at The Connection for Women and Families in Summit. They both love the class! Heres the web address: http://www.theconnectiononline.org/generalinfo.asp" "we have been going to the connection in summit since my daughter was 6 months and we really like it. members are mostly women, though they do offer sat & sunday classes, which is nice for dads. my husband has been taking our daughter for the past year or so, but i doubt it has changed - most classes are very full for a week or two then everyone drops out - especially in the winter, so class sizes are good. i will say it is very unstructured for the toddlers - which is good or bad dep. on your style. also you can register in line and avoid hectic lines at registration. yes, the kids go underwater! and she jumoed off the diving board into the deep end last week (she's 2 1/2) - it's great!" "I have heard good things about The Connection in Summit. They are small and close and have a nice pool. We happen to belong to the JCC in Scotch Plains, and they have an extensive aquatics program, including infant swim. My 8 year old daughter is on the swim team there -- we love the people in the aquatics department -- but it's a bit of a schlep. The good news is that for $650 a year your whole family can join and use their gym facilities. They have babysitting during certain hours which is reasonably priced so you can swim with the baby, then drop him or her off at babysitting and go workout. I'm sure the aquatics program at the W. Orange JCC is good. They're much more convenient, but I don't know their people." "... I think it is a nice class. It is only 25 mins, Matt says that is enough. It is at the Connection in Summit, they are online. As a matter of fact I registed online and it was so easy." Little School of Fish: We are currently enrolled at the Little School of Fish located by Diamond Gymnastics. My son (2 1/2) goes in with 3 other kids and 2 instructors. The parents do NOT go in at his age. We really like it and the instructors are really good. It only took my son 2 weeks to get comfortable. "I've heard good things about Christy's swim school on Rt. 10 next to Diamond Gymnastics and the Sports funplex." JCC "We did the JCC in Whippany ... and did not like it at all. The class was taught by a teenager and while he was nice was not great. " "My son (who is 3) took at the JCC. I understand the infant classes are very good there as well" ""I have heard good things about The Connection in Summit. They are small and close and have a nice pool. We happen to belong to the JCC in Scotch Plains, and they have an extensive aquatics program, including infant swim. My 8 year old daughter is on the swim team there -- we love the people in the aquatics department -- but it's a bit of a schlep. The good news is that for $650 a year your whole family can join and use their gym facilities. They have babysitting during certain hours which is reasonably priced so you can swim with the baby, then drop him or her off at babysitting and go workout. I'm sure the aquatics program at the W. Orange JCC is good. They're much more convenient, but I don't know their people." NJSwim "We went to Njswim.com in Florham Park- after about 2 months my 3 year old could jump in the deep end and swim the length of the pool." Summit YMCA "I took swimming lessons with my 18 mos. old at the summit ymca - nice because the pool is kept very warm so little ones don't get cold... Kids don't learn to "swim" but they do seem to get used to the water - the teacher plays games, sings songs and uses lots of water toys. Child is required to become a member to enroll in classes - memebership is about $70 / year." "We did a Mommy & Me with the YMCA when my son was a year. It was OK, nothing to write home about. My son was never afraid of the water and alot of the activities are geared toward getting the babies comfortable. Unless there is a real fear of water you want to overcome, I think other baby classes would be a better way to spend your money."