Teacher Workshops

Teacher Training Workshops 2009

Infant/Toddler Swimming

Small group workshops

Lifestyle Swim School

Boca Raton, Florida

Raising the bar on teaching with kindness and joy

Teacher training

Rob and Kathy McKay have conducted teacher training workshops at their Boca Raton, Florida site with attendees from as far away as Japan, New Zealand, The Philippines, Scandinavia, Australia, South America, Singapore, Malaysia, India and Europe as well as from throughout the U.S. They have conducted workshops for countries, cities, private organizations as well as for individuals. In 2003 Rob presented a workshop in Uppsala, Sweden, sponsored by pediatrician Dr. Ludmilla Rosengen, and in 2004 Oslo, Norway.

Recently workshops have been held in all corners of this wonderful water world from Wellington and Christchurch, New Zealand to Krakow, Poland and in between.

2008 was an amazing year as we trained teachers here at our Boca Raton site from the United States, South Africa, The Philippines, Malaysia, Russia and Greece, as well as hosting visits from Swimming Hall of Fame award winners from Brazil and Tokyo. This group included swim school owners, people starting swim programs, doctors, psychologists, swimmers, child care specialists, and mommies. All sharing a love of water and children.

Click here to see photos of Rob's PSPN large group workshop in Poland, March 2009 TV,Media,Talks

"The Lifestyle Swim School, in Boca Raton, Florida, U.S.A., has the world's foremost infant/toddler learn-to-swim program."

Ross Gage , Director Swim Australia

If after reading this entire web site you feel that you are in tune with our gentle, "baby friendly" philosophy and you feel at home with the principles expressed below, you may be a candidate for our teacher training workshop. Teaching babies has an incredible impact on a young child's life and is a great responsibility, the "whole child approach" requires individuals with special "sensitive traits". It is not for everyone.

Rob training Nathalie from Water Planet Human Dolphin-Encounters Panama City Beach, Florida/Bimini Island Bahamas

Our workshops are for those high minded individuals who:

1. Seek to create a warm and nurturing experience for young children that will help to shape their lives in a positive way.

2. See the swimming experience as an avenue for guiding and inspiring growth on many levels, and not focusing solely on the fear of "not drowning" (see safety link Pool & Water Safety )

3. Will only treat children with gentleness and awareness of their feelings, abilities and readiness.

4. Would never use an accelerated agenda utilizing forced pre-mature and repeated submersions or unwilling coerced back float. (We welcome those who bring joy, not crying or fear). You must understand that this is not "survival backfloat swimming" or "drown proofing". We are a holistic school, and while we do teach safety skills over time, we are a child centered, child paced (not fear based) as well as child friendly and family friendly. We are a happy place, filled with smiles not tears.

5. Are in tune with and consciously become of aware of what the child is capable of, only seeking the highest good of each child

6. See swimming as a road to celebrate life, each class being it's own reward

7. Come open and ready to learn from the babies and from us

Meg Balfour from Durban, South Africa, attended the two week baby, infant/toddler swim teacher workshop, May 4-15th, 2008. Here Meg is seen at the International Swimming Hall of Fame for the annual Paragon Awards and the Virginia Hunt Newman Award ceremony. Seated from left to right are Meg, Jose Fontanelli of Sao Paulo, Brazil recipient of the 2008 Newman award and presenters Rob McKay and Kathy McKay.


M. Satish Kumar from Bangalore, India, starting the nations first baby swimming program with the help of Rob and Kathy McKay.	Rob and Kathy with Nina who trained in our holistic/gentle approach to teaching babies to swim. She participated for 4 weeks in the fall of 2007, at our Boca Raton site. Nina is from London and Brighton, England


Dr. Lyudmila of Moscow, Russia participated in our baby swim teacher training in September, 2008. Combined with pediatric medicine and baby massage, it is her hope to add infant/toddler swimming to her work in Moscow.	Dr. Lyudmila is now convinced that swimming at early ages in a gentle, nurturing, child paced, playful environment will greatly enhance the healthy development of the child.

Teacher Training at our site in

Boca Raton, Florida

Small Group Workshop Schedule for 2009:

We may be able to customize a training time for you. We usually have several individuals interested in the workshops at any given time, so we try to coordinate their schedules on the same weeks. Let us know as far in advance as possible if a particular time period beginning on a Sunday looks good for you. Otherwise here is below is our posted schedule thus far for 2009 at our Boca Raton site.

2009 Workshop #1 April- May

Beginning week one: April 27-May 1

if attending two weeks: week two May 4-May 8

if attending three weeks: week three May 11-May 15

if attending four weeks: week four May 18-May 22

Week One Running Sunday Evening through Friday Morning

No classes held on Fridays except on the last week of your training and will be used to recap your workshop

2009 Workshop #2 May-June

Beginning week one: May 26-May 30

if attending two weeks: week two June 1-June 5

if attending three weeks: week three June 8-June 12

if attending four weeks: week four June 15-June 19

Week One Running Monday Evening through Saturday Morning (due to Memorial Day)

2009 Workshop #3 June-July

An opportunity exits for the first two weeks of this workshop to share/split the price of a condo and car. Let Rob know if you are interested.

Beginning week one: June 29-July 3

if attending two weeks: week two July 6-10

if attending three weeks: week three July 13-July 17

Week One Running Sunday Evening through Friday Morning

No classes held on Fridays except on the last week of your training and will be used to recap your workshop

2009 Workshop #4 July-August

Beginning week one: July 20-July 24

if attending two weeks: week two July 27-July 31

if attending three weeks: week three August 3-August 7

if attending four weeks: week four August 10-14

Week One Running Sunday Evening through Friday Morning

No classes held on Fridays except on the last week of your training and will be used to recap your workshop

2009 Workshop #5 August-September

Three weeks only

Beginning week one: August 31-September 4

if attending two weeks: week two September 8-September 12

if attending three weeks: week three September 14-September 18

Week One Running Sunday Evening through Friday Morning

Week two running Tuesday through Saturday morning (due to Memorial Day)

No classes held on Fridays except on the last week of your training and will be used to recap your workshop

2009 Workshop #6 September-October

Two weeks only

Beginning week one: September 21-25

if attending two weeks: week two Sept 28-October 2

Week One Running Sunday Evening through Friday Morning

No classes held on Fridays except on the last week of your training and will be used to recap your workshop

2009 Workshop #7 October 6th, Tuesday

One day only

Pre-conference workshop for the World Aquatic Baby Congress

Brighton, England

2009 Workshop #8 October-November

Contact Lifestyle on the form below for up coming workshops or future dates

Baby Swim teacher workshop participant Angela (Froggie) from Auckland, New Zealand and Gabriela from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Angelica, a licensed psychologist from Athens, Greece attended the October 2008, 4 week session. Angelica, was a perfect fit as she tuned into the feelings and well being of our baby swimmers. Besides practicing psychology, Angelica is a popular water polo in Greece. She was also a volunteer for the 2004 Athens Olympics and Para Olympics where she met an up and coming swimmer named Michael Phelps.

Training caring teachers with heart through-out the world

Provide the contact information below in an email for course curriculum and pricing, as well as to receive lodging and travel information for our next small group "teacher training" workshop.

Boca Raton, Florida

Ivy spent two weeks in the teacher training workshop in July, 2008. Here Scott and Rob are attempting to make Ivy feel at home. You see, her home town of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is also home to the worlds two tallest twin buildings, the PETRONAS Towers.

We have been experiencing some trouble receiving Yahoo emails. If you do not receive a reply from us and you are using Yahoo, please try sending your email again with an email different than Yahoo.

Please provide the following information below in an email, along with your interest in baby swimming/send to: mckayswim@aol.com

Name

City

State

Country

Telephone

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