Get Your Swim on with Apple Montessori!

With Apple Montessori Schools summer camp in full swing, our campers are enjoying their journey along Road Trip USA, exploring various location-based themes through Montessori lessons, crafts, games, cooking, STEM activities, robotics, and more. But one of our most popular activities every summer is our swim program!

Apple's swim program is led by Lou Waibel, our aquatics director. Lou has been with Apple for over 15 years, and oversees our swim program as well as pool maintenance and lifeguard training. Each summer, Lou trains our swim staff and conducts pre-season and in-season lifeguard training drills in preventative surveillance, CPR/AED, and water saves. As aquatics director, he visits each location and provides feedback to our swim staff on how to help our campers become more confident swimmers.

"Outside of Apple, I have been an elementary school teacher in the Verona School District," he said. "I taught kindergarten for one year, and have been a mainstay as part of F.N. Brown's fourth grade team for 15 years. Teaching children is a passion of mine."

Lou is assisted in this work by Caitlin Gold, a lifeguard and swim teacher who grew up loving the pool and swimming. As a child, she swam competitively for the Mahwah Marlins each summer, then joined the Bergen Barracudas to swim competitively all year round. Following her own competitive swimming days, Caitlin found her love for teaching at the Mahwah Pool and New York Sports Clubs.

Caitlin began lifeguarding and giving swim lessons with Apple in 2012, and over the years has completed Water Safety Instructor training as well as a Lifeguard Instructor certification.

At the start of their summer camp season, children are tested to determine their competency in the water and individual swim skill level. We maintain a 1:4 ratio during swim lessons and operate on the buddy system during free swim, during which time all children must come out of the pool every 10 minutes and be counted. In addition, we have cameras at the pool that provide our Admin team with access to a live feed for additional supervision.

It's not too late to join us for this camp season and have your little one benefit from daily swim lessons with our Red Cross certified lifeguards*. Schedule a tour to see our camp in action!

*Water activities vary by location. Schools that don't have an on-site pool may utilize an off-site swimming option or offer other types of water play. Check with your location for details. Several of our on-site pools have recently been upgraded to saltwater systems, which offer many health benefits over traditional chlorine pools.