Baby Seals Swim Academy

My son started Baby Seals with Steffi at the age of 10 months. He was not to excited about the first few lessons, but after that loved every minute and even would sign more more more to Steffi. He is now 18 months, still going and I am VERY comfortable with him around the pool. He can easily get from one end to the other. He is a little fish and loves to swim. I highly recommend this program if you are anywhere near water. Water safety is very important. We should not have to see articles of children drowning in their own pools. Too many children grow up with a fear of water. Steffi is great with the children and very compassionate person.

I am forever grateful to Steffi and her Baby Seals Academy class. Steffi is compassionate and has a strong passion for the life survival skill she teaches. My child, Christian, was strong willed and would vocalize every moment of his lesson for all six weeks, that he did not want to do it. Screamed and screamed and screamed some more. But as soon as his lesson was over, he’d be giddy to go underwater. He loved the water. And he loved it more everyday as he had more lessons. But yet, he would scream at Steffi. He simply did not like the «work» and being told what to do, at 15months old. And it would have been easy for her to simply tell me, the parent, «sorry but your child is not happy. Maybe we should discontinue». She knew that at the end of the day, he was learning the survival skill and building water confidence, that no other lesson could teach him. And as long as the parent is strong willed and wants the child to learn the skill that will help him/​her survive in water, at any age, then she will suffer through your child’s screams. She is a seasoned pro and does not get frazzled by children screaming in her ear. As a mother of two, and having taught countless children, she like any teacher can not stop teaching simply because a child protests the work. And the benefits are priceless. Knowing my child has water confidence (confidence is half the battle in learning swimming) and can instinctively go into survival mode is more than I could ever ask for. And I am thankful that Steffi put up with my child’s vocal protests and taught him. Now at 3 yrs old, he is working on actually doing the freestyle form. Pop up breathes are a challenge, but he does not protest since he loves the water. I am forever grateful to Steffi and her Baby Seals Academy.

My husband and I have a pool in our backyard and we wanted our daughter to be a strong swimmer from the get-​go. My mom and dad gifted us swim lessons as a Christmas gift to us two years ago. Mabel was around 10 months old when we started lessons with Steffi. We did the infant survival classes and I was very proud of her watching her floating in the water with her heavy fleece jacket in the water weighing her down. I wanted to jump up and down and cheer for her, and I did tell her after her lesson how proud I was of her. We have been taking her to the pool for lessons with Steffi regularly since then, and have found it to be such a very rewarding and positive experience.
I have uploaded a few of the «swim, float, swim» videos to my personal Facebook page for my grandparents and aunts who do not live near us to see and they are just tickled to see her do her swims. I am thrilled with how far she has come in the past few years.
The classes that she takes now are group lessons with other toddlers on the weekends. The class starts with «The Kids in the Pool», which is sang to the tune of «The Wheels on the Bus», which usually gets Mabel smiling and clapping. Then it moves to one on one swim time with Steffi. (In the past she has protested, but I told her that it was for her own good and that she was safe with Steffi and mom in the pool. She doesn’t protest much any more.) Then the class goes into «Three Green and Speckled Frogs», where the toddlers line up on a ledge in the pool and take turns jumping into the water and swimming to their parents/​care takers. More one on one time with teach. Then the «Hokey Pokey» dance in the water and sometimes the «Motorboat» song with the kids on the kick boards, swooshing through the water. After class ends we play on the steps for a bit and then it’s hard to get her out of the pool, because she enjoys the water so much.
It’s the highlight of our week seeing her jump in the pool and swim around for that half hour and then climbing out of the pool and seeing her stick her arms in the air and yelling «I did it! I did IT!!» Haha! It’s so cute. The price of the lessons seemed high to me initially, but now I would pay that and then some for what we have been given. The skills she has learned have truly been priceless.
Thank you Baby Seals. Thank you Steffi. I couldn’t have taught her these skills this fast and I don’t know of anyone else in the area that can either.

I am so thankful that I saw a video post of a friend’s child of floating with their clothes on as it was the impetus to come watch a class and sign up out 18 mo and 5 year old.
My 5 year old had been through private lessons for the previous 3 summers but still was not comfortable in the water. Steffi pushes the kids but in the end, I think it teaches them that even though it may be tough, they can do whatever they want!
My 18 month old is now very comfortable in the water and more important, I am comfortable with her around water.
This program gives your child, and you, a strong sense of comfort in the water. I highly recommend doing the Fundays/​aqua babies after as you will see continuing growth and rewards.
I had several friends recommend it and there advice was «the first few weekends are tough on you, but now our kids are swimming like seals and they love the water.» I have to say I agree with them!

My Daughter Alice loved Steffi and the infant survival class was perfect to ease my worry for her being around her grandparents pool. Alice started at 6 months and after a few weeks could rescue herself if she ever fell in a pool. I have another daughter Lucy but tried classes in Texas after we moved and I wasn’t as impressed. Alice loves water but understands how to act around it. Lucy (second daughter) hates water, with Lucy we did survival classes in Texas. Alice (first daughter) still has a love for water but appreciates the danger. Alice is now 4.

I brought my son in for his first lesson today, and we will most definitely not be returning.
We follow a gentle parenting philosophy, meaning that we respect our children’s needs and emotions, and there is no way this class could ever mesh with our beliefs.
Based on what I saw today, these classes are severely lacking in compassion. The unacknowledged cries of the children in the lesson before mine should have been a tip off that this was no good. Once my son was in the pool with Steffi (my husband was not allowed in, despite the fact that my toddler is nervous around strangers) she began repeatedly dunking him under the water to counts of three. My son was shrieking and clearly terrified, calling out for us between dunks, but Steffi kept going. After about a minute of this, I stepped in, telling her I was uncomfortable. She gave me quite a bit of attitude, saying that you should not acknowledge crying children, or else they will learn that crying gets them what they are after.
I firmly believe that my son absolutely SHOULD expect me to come if he is crying for me, especially out of fear, as was the case during this lesson. I told Steffi this, though she didn’t seem to understand/​give a crap.
I will absolutely not be taking my son here, and if you practice gentle/​attachment parenting, or care at all about respecting your children’s fears and cries, I would advise not taking your business here. It’s not fair to them to be put through this traumatizing program.
This website has interesting information about survivalist swim techniques and classes akin to this one. Before enrolling, I highly suggest reading it through!

We started our two children in the infant survival course thinking it would be a just month or two of fun… little did we realize the how wonderful an impression teacher Steffi would make on our children (ages 1&3). We continued sessions once/​week for over a year now and the kids are still consistently thrilled to attend. The environment is comfortable, water is nice and attitude is just right from the Instructor to maintain water awareness and skill while having fun!

Baby Seals is simply one of the best things I have done for my son and I cannot recommend this program, or the instructor, more highly. Being an avid surfer and living next to the ocean, it was important to me that my son learn how to swim at a young age. We began the program when he was 2.5 years old. In six weeks, he could swim across the pool, under water, and absolutely loved the water. Since then, he has enjoyed swimming and the water immensely. While learning to be safe in water is critically important, I didn’t realize what an impact this program would have on my son’s confidence and self-​esteem. My son has been diagnosed with a severe speech disorder, speech apraxia, that makes it difficult to understand him. He is in intensive speech therapy and has made lots of progress. However, I see him struggle everyday with trying to get people to understand him. When he is in the pool, however, that just floats away. He is such an amazing swimmer because of this program that people come over to see the «little guy» swim – because he is just incredible – he can swim hundreds of yards, dive deep on his own for toys and basically is just a fish. The pride I see him have for his abilities in this area are priceless. It has allowed him to recognize that though he has challenges – he also has gifts – and Baby Seals helped him to develop his swimming ability and the confidence that came from that. I’ll be forever grateful for this program!

We began the Baby Seals program when my daughter was 6mo. The infant survival classes are AMAZING! Steffi taught her how to float up to the top of the water and do her «starfish» if she should fall into a body of water within just a few lessons. And she made sure she was able to do it (and that I was comfortable with her ability) in a diaper or fully clothed before moving on to other skills. Roxanne is now 2 ½yo and still doing the Baby Seals program in weekly classes with Steffi. Who happens to be one of the most patient and flexible instructors I have ever known. Watching her with my daughter as well as other children you can see she finds a way to connect with each of them and makes learning fun and effective. I also have found that since we have been going through the program I also feel comfortable with my daughters abilities and water safety. While I am always nearby and watching her around water I don’t feel nervous and don’t hover when we go somewhere that has a pool and when we go swimming I can enjoy it with her and not feel like I am just holding her in the water. It is fun to watch the amazement on peoples faces when we are at a public or hotel pool and they see my little 2yo jump in from the edge and swim across to me with no problems or fears.

we started @ baby seals when my oldest daughter was 4, and terrified of the water, after a bad experience in a hot tub. i figured i had nothing to lose by doing this program. i honestly was a little hesitant at first just because of the price, but figured since outcomes are guaranteed, i’d just get my $ back if my 4 year old «won». the first few lessons, there was a lot of screaming and hitting (on my daughter’s part), and i was astounded how calm steffi was in re-​directing my daughter’s anger, and gaining her trust. within the first 3 – 4 weeks, my daughter was doing the swim-​float-​swim, easily, without crying (some protest), and i was floored. the way steffi worked with her was incredibly calm, quiet, and somehow she managed to ensue not only skill, but confidence in my child. my daugher is now 6 and on swim team, having graduated the program, and absolutely loves swimming.
my younger daughter started baby seals at 18 months, a fiery redhead with a personality to match her hair. steffi once again was dealing with a strong willed child in a calm, collected, patient manner. as she was younger, she couldn’t «argue» as much, but she did scream. again, steffi continued to work with her, calming her, and not feeding into my child’s stubbornness, but continued to praise her successes, and re-​direct her protests. she is now 3 ½ and though her red-​haired-​ness occasionally kicks in, my daughter can swim-​float-​swim easily, swim with amazing strength, and i am comfortable sitting out of the pool while she plays.
i’ve had some friends balk at the price of lessons, however, they spend more trying to get their child to swim across the pool once, summer, after summer, after summer, then i did with the baby seals program. after 6 weeks, both of my girls were able to be dropped into the pool fully clothed, flip on her back, and swim to the side. and besides, can you really put a price on your child’s safety in a water situation? not only can my girls swim for fun, but they can swim for their life if they need to.
steffi works with each child like they are the most important student– i’ve seen her with many other children, and when she is one on one in the water with a student, that student is her sole focus, as she turns her love, attention, and focus on making them the best swimmer they can. in my opinion, a good swim teacher teachers your child how to swim, but a great teacher gains your child’s trust, helps them build confidence, and skill while learning to swim with confidence. steffi is great. i can tell that this isn’t just a job for her, she truly loves the children and parents she teaches. i can’t recommend this program enough.