Tiny Pool Swim School; End of Summer Updates

 

 August 12, 2026

 

Hi Everyone,

This week marks the end of our current swim lesson session, and I wanted to share an update on what's ahead, some general announcements, and a couple of requests.  

 

Construction & Travel

Starting August 17, Tiny Pool Swim School will be taking a break while we complete some big projects at home:

• building a dedicated pool bathroom,

• creating a new kitchen in the location of the "old" screen porch (where the snack bar and toys currently are), and

• preparing to install new flooring in the house.

If you have been coming for lessons in August, you may have noticed that we are packing up the entire first floor of the house. It's been an exercise in letting go of things that no longer work for us as we prepare for our future needs and aging in place.

 

During construction of the pool bathroom, Vicki and I will be taking a long-planned road trip, leaving at the end of August and returning in mid-October. That means there won't be any swim lessons during this time.

 

Looking Ahead

When we return in October, I'll send another email with construction updates and information about when lessons will resume. Once the schedule settles with returning families, I'll begin inviting families on the waiting list.

 

Around the end of December, I'll also send a brief check-in email to everyone enrolled or on the waiting list. I'll ask whether you'd like to continue lessons or remain on the email list/waiting list so I can keep my records up to date and make sure I'm staying in contact with families who are still interested.

 

Thank You

Before we wrap up for the season, I want to thank my enrolled families for trusting me with your children. It's been so rewarding to watch their confidence grow, celebrate the little milestones that add up to big progress, and see them become more willing to try new things. Thank you for sharing them with me.

 

Thank you in advance for your patience and support while we make these improvements to our home and pool room. I'm excited to create an even better experience for our swimmers and their families, and I look forward to seeing many of you back in the pool this fall. 

  

Request: Reviews

If any parents are willing to write a little bit about your child's experience learning with me, I'd love to share your experience with other families. Just drop me an email and let me know what you want to say and how you want to be identified.  It's been a while since I updated the review section on the website, and I'd like to do a refresh. 

 

Request: Photos and Video Clips

I also know lots of parents take photos and video while your children are swimming with me. I'm building a library of images and video that I can use on my site or drop into video explainers.  If you have any photos or video clips you are willing to share, I'd love to add them to my resource bank. I know families have varied practices around sharing images of their children online, so please only share if you are comfortable with your child's image and possibly their first name on a public-facing site.  

 

Other News

I've been experimenting with blogging and YouTube videos about the ideas behind Tiny Pool Swim School and what makes my approach different from many other swim programs.

 

You may notice that the swim videos are on my Saylor Financial Fundamentals YouTube channel. That might seem like an odd combination, and I hope I don't confuse the YouTube algorithm! For the past few years I've been teaching adults about investing and stock options on YouTube. Rather than start a second channel from scratch, I added a Tiny Pool Swim School playlist to the existing one. Keeping everything on one channel made more sense administratively, and lets me spend more time teaching instead of managing multiple social media accounts.  

 

I have a few blog posts about goggles, flotation, and leading with kindness. If you're curious about my teaching philosophy, these are a good place to start.

• Recent Blog Post: What Consent and Respect Look Like When Your Student is Four

• TPSS YouTube Playlist (The most recent video is the best one.) 

Swim Coach

I'm bringing in some extra help with swim coaching to prepare children who are trying out for local swim teams.  Ellie Potter was a  junior coach at Hollow Rock Swim Club this year, and came highly recommended. She is a high school student, interested in building her own skills as a swim instructor. I asked her to help with a student who had "graduated" from my program and Ellie did a great job teaching side breathing and backstroke to this six year old.  If Ellie's schedule allows her to continue our collaboration, we'll be able to offer more advanced lessons for children who are swimming independently.

 

Correspondence Notes

To help me stay organized, I try to keep correspondence with parents in the Wix messaging system (rather than Facebook or gmail, where it sometimes gets lost). The contact form on the Solterra Way Cottage School website goes right to my inbox. 

 

 

Have a wonderful rest of the summer!

 

Patricia Saylor Tiny Pool Swim School

 

 

Meet Lucy, Vivian, Julia and Vitalii (at the top of the page in the green goggles).  I thank them for their help and willingness to swim underwater and freely share their opinions about the goggles they tried.

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110 Solterra Way, Durham, NC, USA

Solterra Way Cottage School