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I knew to survive southern summers with 5 kids under 4.5 years of age, I would need them to swim.  However, after spending 6 weeks in a local swim class with my 3-year-old daughter where she only learned to sit on the side of the pool, wait patiently, and blow bubbles there had to be a better method. I spent countless hours calling local swim schools and instructors only to be told the American Academy of Pediatrics doesn’t recommend swim lessons until the age of 4. I was further told that swimming should be fun and we didn’t want to scare the kids.  However, I knew my children needed to respect the water and learn survival skills. Finally, I found a swim instructor who used patience and repetition to teach my daughter to swim. After the first lesson, my 3-year-old was jumping off the side of the pool, turning around, and swimming back to the wall.  I was amazed at how quickly she progressed in 30 minutes after seeing no improvements in the previous 6-week program. I was hooked and became a firm believer in teaching my kids water safety at a young age.  Moving to Alabama the following summer forced me to search again for a swim instructor who would teach my son to swim.  I found none so I spent a week of my summer living in the Drury hotel back in South Carolina.  The same instructor who taught my daughter to swim began teaching my son the same skills.  The following summer I finally found a swim instructor who believed young children could learn water survival skills, so I enrolled my 15-month-old, 2-year-old, and 3-year-old in her two-week program. Through tears and hard work, all of my kids were able to swim at some level. Fast forward ten years later my love for teaching, a house with a pool in the backyard, and a friend’s tragedy prompted me to bring water survival skills to Greenville, SC.  Coming full circle from those first lessons, I traveled with my daughter back to Alabama where we shadowed the lady who taught my kids and her how to swim.