Running a Mermaid School

[AniaR]

Hey folks, I made a blog post about running a mermaid school that some of you might be interested in

http://rainamermaid.weebly.com/blog/...hool-adventure

[A_Koi_Mermaid]

This is interesting, I sort of assumed a mermaid school was out of my reach unless I was a certified swim instructor. I've been making friends with a local dive shop that does swim lessons, maybe I'll pitch them the idea someday.

[AniaR]

yeah I am not comfortable doing it without working with swim instructors, but I am a certified first aid and CPR instructor haha so I train the lifeguards. And a licensed teacher - which in Canada has higher standards than most other places in the world (2 degrees, 6 years of uni minimum)

But I think it's doable for those of us non instructors if you collaborate with others. They help the kids refine the technique, I pretty much do everything else

[theMerFanc]

This is amazing <3

[Merman Andrew]

This is a really great and informative blog! I have a suggestion, instead of wearing your silicone tails to these classes you could buy or make your own fabric tail so that way if it gets worn down the cost to repair or replace it isn't anywhere near as much. I'm sure the kids who take the classes especially the younger ones won't really mind or even notice that you have a fabric tail since most of them would have not even seen any mermaid tail before little lone a silicone one. I think you should reserve your silicone tail for professional gigs only.

Also you mentioned in the article about the life saving society observing your classes, how did that go? I'm very interested to know how best to talk to LSS's to help convince them to be on our side. Surely you have shown that Mermaid tails are not only safe when kids are taught appropriate safety procedures but that they even encourage kids and make kids into better swimmers! If there is any written statements you can get from them giving their approval to mermaid tail use that would be really helpful to share with the rest of the mermaid community as we can then show that to our local LSS to prove that there are professional orgs out there that support us and don't think we're completely crazy!

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[Mizuko]

Fantastic article Raina! Incredibly helpful I'm getting my swimming instructors certificate in a month and I've been tossing up the idea of doing mermaid classes still alot to think about, but this has been really informative! Thank you!

[AniaR]

it's a lot of work, not going to lie. lol and it can be expensive if you're providing all the gear! but still worth it

[IslandGirl]

Thanks for your post!

I'm planning to start my class with swimmers who have all passed deep-water swim tests, can swim 50m freestyle well, and I expect will be very quick to master the tails.

So, I need tricks/ games/ activities to keep the kids busy. What did you do with your older students?

- Gina

[AniaR]

This is a really great and informative blog! I have a suggestion, instead of wearing your silicone tails to these classes you could buy or make your own fabric tail so that way if it gets worn down the cost to repair or replace it isn't anywhere near as much. I'm sure the kids who take the classes especially the younger ones won't really mind or even notice that you have a fabric tail since most of them would have not even seen any mermaid tail before little lone a silicone one. I think you should reserve your silicone tail for professional gigs only.

Also you mentioned in the article about the life saving society observing your classes, how did that go? I'm very interested to know how best to talk to LSS's to help convince them to be on our side. Surely you have shown that Mermaid tails are not only safe when kids are taught appropriate safety procedures but that they even encourage kids and make kids into better swimmers! If there is any written statements you can get from them giving their approval to mermaid tail use that would be really helpful to share with the rest of the mermaid community as we can then show that to our local LSS to prove that there are professional orgs out there that support us and don't think we're completely crazy!

Sent from my SM-G360G using Tapatalk

I missed this post so I thought I'd address it now! sorry

As for wearing silicone- I live in a small city so everyone knows me. i felt obligated to be in character or I risked losing future business and also ruining the magic for the kids. I wouldn't suggest starting things out that way, but it was something we got a lot of compliments on it from the parents.

The lifesaving society basically ruled that each pool would operate under their own discretion, so no country wide/ province wide bans.