Education & Classes in Lighthouse Point

Not many actors can say they've performed in a production directed by a 12-year-old, but Erin Coley has always had an instinctive sense of how to put on a show. Years later, she and her husband, J.R., founded Standing Ovation Performing Arts, assembling eight other experts in the field to encourage kids to get on the stage as early as possible. Improv comedy, puppetry, and playwriting help students express themselves while giving them the skills to deliver confident class presentations and rousing monologues on the futility of naptime.

Wading through indoor heated pools, the instructors at British Swim School teach independent swimming skills to learners aged 3 months and older, adhering to a curriculum devised by British national swimmer Rita Goldberg. The 30-minute one-on-one sessions and small-group lessons, containing six or fewer swimmers, elucidate essential techniques for water safety and the importance of speaking fluent manatee. Swimboree (ages 3 months–3 years with parents) and Young Minnows sessions (ages 1–3 years without parents) teach wee swimmers basic water-survival skills, such as the back float. Turtle One and Turtle Two classes focus on freestyle, backstroke, and breaststroke maneuvers, honing more structured swimming skills in older kiddos. British Swim School's Shark courses enhance stamina and speed and teach even more demanding strokes, such as the butterfly and little-known mountain-goat flail. Certain British Swim School classes require parents to participate in the water or to supervise from the pool deck, and adults-only lessons allow grown-ups to refine their own abilities without the supervision of a toddler.

Art-Sea Living owner Babs Lentz caught the entrepreneurial bug at age 12, when she helped her father sell his car for $200 more than what he was asking. But Lentz has always intertwined her business savvy with free-spirit artistry, creating a children’s clothing line, designing jewelry, and opening the Art-Sea Living boutique gallery. Inside this welcoming studio, Lentz displays her own handmade creations as well as items from other local designers. Above all, she believes that art can be a great healer. Visitors can unleash their own inner artists during pottery-painting sessions, clay-sculpting classes, and watercolor studies. And for special events, Art-Sea Living can bring its studio on wheels to your party, offering paint-your-own pottery, wineglass painting, and more.

In Great Balls of Yarn's four boutiques, knitters and crocheters of all experience levels browse more than 20,000 balls of yarn, including luxurious fibers from Trendsetter and Noro as well as hand-dyes from Prism and Malabrigo. Talented fiber artists guide knitters and crocheters as they transform vibrant fibers into wearable works of art during beginner through advanced classes. Project-specific sessions focus on creating table runners, borders for blankets, and baby booties to keep wee ones' feet warm and steps soundless during midnight refrigerator raids. Amid the shops' soft lighting, tapestries intermix with shelves of color-coded worsted and washable yarns alongside cashmeres and silks. Great Balls of Yarn also arms textile technicians with needles, notions, and books full of inspiration and yarn-charming incantations.

Children in goggles and swim caps emblazoned with United States Swim Academy's patriotic logo kick and glide through an indoor pool heated to a comfortable 91 degrees. Instructors help them practice proper body and head positions, as well as efficient arm strokes and kicks, following a curriculum developed specifically for children by founder Karen King, the former national director of SwimAmerica. Besides these courses for children, the academy's team of competitive swimmers and rescue professionals also leads classes for adults that emphasize safe aquatic habits, such as never swimming alone or chewing on pool noodles 30 minutes before going into the water.

Under the leadership of Andy Raffa, the expert staff at Players Edge Academy teach the American pastime in a 20,000-square-foot indoor baseball mecca that shields players from heat, rain, and UFO abductions. Lessons and camps dispense expert advice from an all-star team of instructors, including former Yankees pitcher Jay Tessmer, who was with the team for the 1999 and 2000 World Series victories.

Taking to the indoor infield, students learn to hit, field, and pitch during lessons, clinics, and camps. Six batting cages sling fastballs, curveballs, and sliders to hitters, and in four of the cages, ProBatter PX2 pitching machines project a digital, life-size image of a pitcher onto a screen. The DVD-quality pitcher, synchronized with the incoming pitch, can be adjusted to the batter's height, skill level, and speed.