Welcome to W O W ( World Of Waterbabies )! This is my 3rd DIY website.
We moved over from DIY website : babyswimmingcoach (1999 – 2016 )
This is the place on the internet where you come to find a Mom turned Coach (that’s me!), my experiential learning on babies know-how survival skill in water, providing one-on-one trainings to kiddos and ladies who finds it challenging to cope in a group setting or perhaps just needed a touch of extra attention for that bits of boost in a water environment.
It makes sense, me a 365/24/7 full force hands-on Mom first then a Coach, is a bonus! With that maternal instinct, I would know better how to care for a child and what works best based on my living success having raised two babies of 10 years age gap all by myself since the day they arrived Mother earth. My passion is on training babies from as young as 6 months old; how to propel freely in the water and achieving life saving survival skills that would minimize chance of drowning at early age. These valuable skills and confidence will help a child in the smooth progression to age appropriate swim strokes learning process.
HOW IT ALL STARTED
Lets go back to 1998, that strong affection for my firstborn suffering from bronchitis, I was very determined to find a cure of any kind. Having Jasper exposed to early swimming at 3 months old turns out all’s well a blessing! Besides saying goodbye forever to bronchitis, we uncovered little surprises. Since 1999, my life as a baby swimming Coach has been totally fabulous beyond words! A passion turned into our livelihood; teaching babies from as young as 6 months old how to propel freely in a water environment, minimizing the risk of drowning. Awesome indeed! The success of my very own water babies; my firstborn child a beautiful baby boy and ten years later, I have a gorgeous baby girl in November 2008. Both my kids before turning 3 years of age, Jasper was able to propel freely swim across a 50 meters swimming pool and Hermione Isabelle 25 meters unaided, meaning… Yay! No flotation aids! Before Hermione turned 4 years old, she could propel freely swim 150m (3 laps) continuously and at 5 years 2 months old she set her own records continuous 400m (8 laps) in breast stroke + Freestyle + Back stroke. Proudly Jasper achieved the NASSA Gold Star swim award at the age of 8 years old (being the youngest participant among ten other kids aged 10 to 14 year old), he impressively accomplished 100m swim in less than 2mins 30secs and completed in 2nd position for the 1,500m (50m Olympic-sized pool X 30 laps) continuous swim with fairly good timing of 37mins 46secs. This mother aka Coach does keep track!
FROM MOM TO COACH A PASSION TURNED LIVELIHOOD
- October 1999 Together my son and I participated in a parent/infant swimming program with an established aquatic school, SwimFast Aquatics. Little by little, having uncovered my talent and potential in teaching, I made my first move to join the reputable aquatic school as a freelance assistant coach. Let me say I have been very happy with my profession and I am very glad I made a good start!
- February 2001 Passed the official skill test and gained admission to Certificate in Swimming Coaching level 1 education conducted by the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) and the Singapore Amateur Swimming Association (SASA)
- April 2001 Passed Preliminary Module (PLM), Lifesaving 1 Lifesaving 2 Lifesaving 3 awards, at Singapore Life Saving Society (SLSS)
- August 2001 Passed Standard Module (SDM), Bronze Medallion and Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation awards, at Singapore Life Saving Society (SLSS)
- February 2002 Attended on-site training on infant and preschool aquatics with AUSTSWIM at the University of Western Australia in Perth Western Australia
- 18 February 2002 Swim Coach, featured in The Straits Times newspaper’s classified C.A.T.S. frontpage and on-page C3 titled “classifiedpeople”
- April 2002 Ministry of Education Sports and Recreation Club + Handicaps Welfare Association = Swimming programs for handicaps at Toa Payoh Swimming Complex Singapore.
- May 2002 issue Young Parents Magazine (Page 54 Water Babies)
- July 2002 Awarded STATEMENT OF SUCCESS Certificate in Swimming Coaching level 1 conducted by the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) and the Singapore Amateur Swimming Association (SASA). Admission and skill test was held in February 2001. Achieved SG-Coach Level 1 certification.
- 14 March 2003 Awarded certificate in National Coaching Accreditation Programme (NCAP) Level 1 by the Singapore Sports Council
- May / June 2003 issue Young Families magazine (Page 36 – swim classes) distributed to all PAP Community Foundation Education Centres
- 14 June 2005 Official title as COACH, swimming, registered with the National Registry Of Coaches (NROC). The NROC is an initiative by the Singapore Sports Council’s Coaching Development Department to raise the Standard and Professionalism of coaching in Singapore. The NROC is a database of coaches who have completed a full National Coaching Accreditation Program (NCAP) certified course, have undertaken a standard First Aid and CPR license course, and have agreed to abide by the Coach’s Code of Ethics.
- 09 and 10 June 2010 National Swimming and Water Safety Programme, accredited SwimSafer Instructor and Tester. With effect 05th July 2010, the Learn-To-Swim Programme and National Survival Swimming Award will be replaced by SwimSafer Programme.
- 15 November 2015 Guest speaker for “Teaching Swimming Safely For Toddlers” at the annual event of Singapore Life Saving Society (SLSS), 19th lifesaving and examiners’ workshop.
- August 2022 Marks a decade of 10 good years and continues at Serangoon Gardens Country Club as Waterbaby Private Coach.
[A little more about Coach Barbara @ e-Bio]
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
The research on World Of Waterbabies is a generous contribution compiled from many observations and testimonials provided by participating swim pals since 1999 and there is a demand and need in bringing our waterbabies to the next level. Yes! It has been proven more often a child actually performs better without the presence of their parents and caregivers, think about the fact and reality that our kiddos have to cope in childcare, schools, enrichment centers without us; the parents! We have to let them in the hands of the trained people. Remember, there’s always a plenty of what parents can do for family bonding, only wise to authorize certain tasks! Of course, reinforce learning is always strongly encouraged, in this instance, plan a family swim date!
Just keep swimming… just keep swimming… swimming; individually paced programs one-on-one! Yup… you read it right it’s 1 coach to 1 participant. Realistically, a Coach with 5 to 6 little kiddos in a group class setting can only have 5 or 6 minutes of actual 1:1 time with each child. Check Fees + Terms and Conditions for my private gatherings!
The only source of knowledge is experience! Be mindful that this is a life saving skill program, kids involved may be as young as four months old. Acknowledge the challenge and learning process, it is perfectly normal to be aware of the fear factor (hello… deep water not land!). Each child owns their unique learning pattern, considerable patience and support for the child and trainer is to individual’s benefits as we journey together into the World of Waterbabies!
#WorldOfWaterbabiesByBarbara
Best,
Barbara Lina Lei 李 惠 玲
eMail : barbaralinalei@gmail.com
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Breathe!
Breathing in swimming is part of a crucial skill!
One should always exhale never never ever hold your breath in the water and inhale when your head exits the water.
Using water conditioning method, our little ones can be taught to breath in through their mouth (inhale) and out through their mouth or through their nose or through both (exhale), it doesn’t matter. But when the little face is in the water he/she should be exhaling all the time in one constant stream of bubbles. Exhale constantly and continuously will make swimming a lot smoother and ease body tension!
World Of Waterbabies by Coach Barbara 