Moms Everywhere

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Tomorrow, May 14th, The Today Show will highlight the wonderful program, Infant Swimming Resource! Our guest this week, Geoff Dawson is not sure what time during the show, but if you are at all interested in helping keep your babies safe around the pool, you must listen to the Today Show and our show this week!

I met Geoff Dawson at a workshop he was giving and I was simply fascinated!!!( I already had my two older children participate in a similar program when they were 18 months old and 3 years old.) But what intrigued me about Geoff was not only his passion and dedication, but how he created another business called the Pool Safety Resource in addition to being an Infant Swimming Resource Instructor! (Plus, I really love his English accent…)

Geoff starts off by telling us that Dr. Harvey Barnett created this infant swimming survival program over 40 years ago and that there are over 20 independent instructors in the Central Florida Orlando region! Infants start as young as 6 months old and the oldest children are about 6 years of age. This program may not be for all parents, but it certainly is effective for those who participate. It also requires a great deal of dedication on the parents’ parts because this is a 4-6 week program where the baby/child is in the pool 5 days a week for a 10 minute lesson. Consistency is the key, says Geoff. And he is certainly correct!

It all depends on the personality of your child and how long it may take. Geoff suggests visiting the instructor you are interested in taking lessons from BEFORE you go to your first lesson. It is extremely important for you to 150% trust your instructor that he/she will keep your child’s best interest at heart and that you agree with his/her teaching style. He says that he does not graduate any child from his program until you are happy with the results. (How awesome is that?!?)

Geoff teaches from his home pool in Longwood… way too far for me in East Orlando! We would have loved him to be our son’s teacher. However, we found one here in our neighborhood and we ABSOLUTELY love, love,love her! Peggy Woolworth in East Orlando. She’s incredible and a gift as well.

We continued our conversation about pool safety and his topic of layers of protection regarding safety. When one layer fails, we must make sure we have other layers in place to help keep our families safe. Swimming lessons, pool fences, alarms, etc. WIth his website, thepoolsafetyresource.com we learn about all sorts of things to keep our families protected! Fantastic resource for parents!!!

One of the important things we discussed was pool rules. Geoff could not emphasize enough RULE #1: Pool Supervision by Mom and Dad. He also stated that when there is a pool party to designate a POOL WATCHER and give him/her a timer at 15 minute increments. This way the designated pool watcher watches without distraction for 15 minutes at a time and can still have fun at the party. It’s not possible to watch the children 100% of tthe time, but it is prudent to have this type of protection in place. Great suggestion, Geoff!!!

He also tells us how he became an ISR instructor. He was the biggest of all doubting Thomases, but after enrolling his 14 month old son in the program, his wife suggested he become an instructor. And, the rest is as they say, ,HISTORY!!! He’s a wonderful and caring father who absolutely is devoted to teaching children how to be safe in the pool. If you are looking for an instructor for your child and you are in Central Florida, be sure to give Geoff a ring!

We had to cut our interview short with Geoff, but will bring him back next week to continue our lesson on pool safety. Also, be sure to check out that video we were talking about earlier in our interview about the little 13 month old , Miles and how ISR helped him in this dramatization! It was on YouTube and you can find it also on the Infant Swimming Resource site.

Stay tuned next week and be sure to watch the Today Show tomorrow! Happy Listening!!!

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