FAQ
Lessons & Development
We offer Private Lessons, Parent and Me, Swim Team Prep and Adult Lessons.
Yes, we do! All of our staff here are certified with a Special Abilities Training Certificate from the United States Swim School Association.
To register for a class, download our app from the App Store (Aqua Duks Swim School), create an account with us, and find a day and time that works best with your schedule. Once enrolled, you will pay for the classes as well as the registration fee.
This is a one time fee. Your child will receive a t-shirt, progress book, tote bag, and insurance while enrolled with us.
A written email must be sent to swim@aquaduks.com before the 1st of the month in order to withdraw from lessons. Once dropped, your spot may be taken and we cannot guarantee the spot once you return. We do not offer a refund for the remaining lessons if withdrawing halfway through the month but can leave a credit on the account once re-enrolling.
Cancellations: To cancel a lesson we require notice, via phone or email, the day of your child’s lesson. If your child’s lesson falls on a weekday, we must receive notice by 9 am and if your child’s lesson falls on a Saturday, we must receive notice by 8 am. Lessons canceled within the allotted time will be credited with a make-up. Each student will be allowed 2 late cancellations per calendar year. No Shows – Missed lessons with no prior notice will not be allowed a make-up class.
Make-Up Lessons:
- Make-up lessons can be scheduled through the Aqua Duks app. Make-ups cannot be scheduled over the phone or in person. Makeups are scheduled in addition to your regularly recurring weekly lesson.
- Make-up lessons cannot be credited towards monthly tuition.
- Students must be actively enrolled to schedule make-up lessons.
- Make-up lessons expire after one year from the date of cancellation.
Our Private Lessons are offered to students 3 months and up. The private lesson will accelerate the learning process and allows our instructors cater the class to the individual age, comfort, and skill level of each student.
It is nearly impossible to predict the amount of time it takes for child to learn to swim as there are many factors that will determine how a child progresses. These factors include, but are not limited to, the age a child starts swimming lessons, the frequency and consistency in which a child attends lessons, the child comfort level in water which is directly related to the child’s sensory system and spatial awareness, past experiences in water, and goals of the parents. As with any sport, learning to swim is a process, not an event, with an infinite amount improvement that can be made and knowledge that can be learned. We don’t typically ask, “how long does it take to learn to play football?” In learning to swim there is a basic guideline to the ages that certain skills can be accomplished, and if a student starts swimming as an infant is likely to follow this timeline outline below:
0-24 months: Breath control, back floating, and the ability to “self-rescue” (rollover and float)
2 years – 3 Years: Independent swimming using coordinated movements of the arms and legs
3 years and up: Swimming strokes with proper technique
There is no bad time to start taking swim lessons, however it is recommended to start as early as possible. We start our swimmers as young as 3 months old and find that our most successful students start at or around this age.
Why? For infants, the water is a familiar and comforting environment and we are born with natural reflexes and skills that enable us to deal with being in water. Starting swim lessons early in life helps to strengthen these reflexes and prevents the water from becoming an unfamiliar environment. With the frequent exposure to water and quality instruction, infants learn to swim the same way they learn to crawl and walk without experiencing the anxiety that often accompanies learning to swim at an older age.
In addition to ease of learning, infant swimming provides many other benefits that will stay with the students for a lifetime, these benefits include but are not limited to, increased safety in and around water, accelerated cognitive development, increased confidence, and accelerated physical development.
Crying is normal during swim lessons for a variety of reasons. The most common causes of crying during or before lessons is separation anxiety and fear of the unknown.
Separation Anxiety – Separation anxiety is a perfectly normal phase of child development and is caused by an attachment that a child developes to mom and/or dad. When child is in the care of someone other than mom or dad they may experience anxiety resulting in worry, crying, or even tantrums. This reaction to working with a new swim instructor usually only last a few weeks while a trusting relationship and routine of the lesson are being developed.
We recommend parents show their child they have nothing to fear by either watching the lessons from a distance or from our viewing area. This allows the students to focus on and receive comfort from the instructor rather than mom or dad who are standing poolside.
After a few lessons this anxiety dissipates and the child’s confidence and independence grows as a result. Working through separation anxiety rather than stopping lessons while aid in future situations where they may experience similar anxiety, like when they start preschool or kindergarten, stay with a babysitter, start team sports, ect.
Fear of the Unknown – It is a normal human instinct to fear what we do not know or understand, through communication and gaining knowledge we alleviate these fears. New students who have not yet developed the communication skills to talk their way through this anxiety will often communicate their fear by crying.
Our instructor are trained to work with our students to help them gain understanding and knowledge resulting in the alleviation of this fear. The result is increased confidence and a life lesson that will stay with them. Learning that with consistency and determination they can overcome situations that may seem scary or even impossible at first
For most of our students 20 minutes is the ideal lesson time. Being that our lessons are private, our students are being engaged and challenged for the entire 20 minutes. For most children this is about the length of heir attention span and physical ability.
If you compare this to a group lesson, usually 30 minutes and split between 3 to 6 children, each child is really only receiving 5 to 10 minutes of actual lesson time. Remember swimming is a physically strenuous activity and what we are working on is different than just playing in the water child which some children can do for hours.
We offer our Parent & Me class to students age 3 months to 24 months. This class offers an excellent bonding experience for parent and child, and will introduce the basics of breath control and buoyancy. Most students will learn to be comfortable in the water and holding their breath in the first few classes of Parent & Me. This class is recommended for new students 3 to 18 months. We recommend starting directly in to private lessons if your child is nearing the age of two for consistency purposes.
Our Private Lessons are offered to students 3 months and up. The private lesson will accelerate the learning process and allows our instructors cater the class to the individual age, comfort, and skill level of each student.
Facilities & Gear
We keep the temperature at 92 degrees year round. Our pools are kept at 1ppm chlorine, which is the minimum required by OC County Health Department. In addition to chlorine we use a UV disinfection system to ensure our pools are clean and safe.
All children should be wearing a bathing suit and if your child is under the age of 4, they are required to wear a Happy Nappy DUO.