Teacher Training
Workshops
2013
with Rob and/or Kathy
McKay
Infant/Toddler Swimming
Small
group workshops
Lifestyle Swim School
Boca Raton, Florida
Come train in a tropical paradise, warm ocean breezes, sunny skis, beautiful beaches
and a clean safe community.
Raising the bar on teaching with kindness and joy

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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
Brighton, England 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, swim coaches, child care specialists, and mommies. All
sharing a love of water and children.
2009 was equally fulfilling
with over 125 caring, gentle people participating in our workshops from all
over the world.
2010 a very exciting year
with baby swimming teacher training participants. Some were starting
programs from scratch in their countries, while others were starting swim
schools or adding baby swimming to their programs. They were setting
up baby swim classes in medical facilities, health clubs, schools, back-yard
pools, scuba centers, public and private facilities. Several were planning
on building there own facilities. All of our trainees share a common bond of
teaching children in a kind, playful and age and developmentally appropriate
manner. Sharing the joy of the water and gradually teaching the safety
skills at a child centered pace, based on readiness.
In
both 2011 and 2012 Rob logged over 20,000 miles in air travel working with
clients. We also conducted a teacher training workshop at the World Aquatic
Baby Swimming Conference.

In 2012 we have
had visitors and trained teachers here in Florida from Norway, Brazil, India, Beijing China, Duke University
and Chicago, with more traveling from New Zealand, Japan, Shanghai China and
the US .
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Rob with Mandy from
Wellington, New Zealand (left) and
Shirly from Shanghai, China (right), 2012.
They just completed one month of training with us here in Boca
Raton, Florida at Florida Atlantic University. |
Chang and Liping with their son baby Dang Dang
from Beijing, China, training at our site in Boca Raton, Florida, in
2012. They are beginning to teach baby swimming in Beijing. |
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| Rob and Kathy
presented a special one day baby swimming teacher training workshop in Brighton,
England on Oct 6th, 2009. This was held in conjunction with the WABC
world conference. click here:
WABC Workshop England |
25 participants attended Rob and
Kathie's pre-WABC workshop,
from Greece, Israel, Japan, The Philippines, Bermuda and the
United Kingdom. |
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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. |

"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
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
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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. |
Cesar
Acsencio from El Salvador, attended our infant/toddler swim teacher
workshop for three weeks in May, 2010. A successful lawyer in San
Salvador, Cesar plans on introducing the family oriented, playful
approach to baby swimming in his country. Our baby students here in
Florida took an immediate liking to Cesar, the babies of El Salvador are
very lucky to have Cesar as their teacher and guide. |
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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 |
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| 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. |
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" I must say that your clients are blessed
to be a part of your program" |
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Dear Rob and
Kathy,
I just wanted to let you know what
a wonderful and informative week I spent with you at the Teacher’s
workshop. First of all I was touched by your hospitality and your
genuine interest in us as participants. I learned so much during our
talks and lectures and it was great to put it all into practice
during our daily swim sessions. It is obvious that your years of
experience have allowed you to perfect your gentle loving approach
to baby swim classes and I must say that your clients are blessed to
be a part of your program. I am grateful to you for affording me the
opportunity to benefit from your knowledge of children’s swimming.
I
also appreciate your continued support as I return to my own
community to implement the ideals
of the program.
Sincerely,
Suzy
(Atlanta) |
Teacher Training for
Baby Swimming in Boca Raton, Florida
2013 Schedule Spring-Summer format

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Our published schedule
dates start at the beginning of a four week swim class
session, so that you can follow a new baby class and learn
from the initial water adjustment stages and move on to submersions and follow the babies
through their natural learning progression. However, 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.
We normally run
the Spring-Summer workshop starting the first week on Sunday evening through Friday mornings.
Let us know as far
in advance as possible if a particular time period beginning on a
SUNDAY evening looks good for
you.
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Spring-Summer Workshops |
Beginning on:
For one, two, three, four weeks
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Workshop 1 |
April
21st |
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Workshop 2 |
May
19th |
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Workshop 3 |
June
16th |
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Workshop 4 |
July
14th |
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Workshop 5 |
August 11th |
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Workshop 6 |
September 15th |
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Workshop 7 |
To be
announced |
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"You truly have a world class program" |
Rob & Kathy,
I just wanted to thank you
for a wonderful week in Boca Raton. I learned so much from
your Workshop and I really look forward to implementing the
gentle philosophy into our Fun Fins Swim School program.
You truly have a world class program and I admire you both
for all that you do. I hope that my assistant, Tatiana,
will be able to attend the workshop in the spring time!
Thanks for everything!
Kristin
(Kentucky)
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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.

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
Email
Telephone


Baby swimming workshop, infant
swimming workshop, learn to become a baby swim teacher, learn to become an
infant swim teacher, learn to become a water baby swim teacher
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