Learning to swim

Learning to swim is an important life skill and one most parents often begin to think of teaching their children from a very early age. There are usually baby swimming classes at local swimming pools and these can be a great way to get your baby off to a good start in swimming.

As a family we enjoy swimming a lot and it was something we wanted our children to love aswell. From an early age we started getting them used to having water poured over them and training them to hold their breath when they went underwater. This all began at just months of age when we bathed them. We would let the running water from the shower fall over their bodies and several times during their shower we would count "one, two, three" and rapidly hold them under the flowing water. They always seemed calm in water and they never cried when we did this. As they got older they would sit in their baby baths under the running water and they have both enjoyed this time to play with plastic animals, make bubbles with the baby shampoo or pour from various plastic bottles!

When we first started taking them swimming we would play games where each of us would go underwater, always counting "one, two, three" first. They were always quite confident in the water and we used this to help them de skip basic control of their bodies while they enjoyed playing.

When they were around 18 months we began to use swim jackets available here.

These allowed them to explore the water safely whilst being independent. As they became stronger we removed a float from the jacket. Each session at the pool we would try to spent a few minute doing a swimming skill or lesson without the jacket. The idea for this came from a wonderful website www.uswim.com which I came across when looking for ways to teach my sons how to swim. The site has full instructions on how to build up the necessary skills to become a swimmer so we began to do these every time we went to the pool. The amount of time they did these skill lessons increased as they grew until now, at 4 years old, our eldest son can swim across the pool and is reluctant to use his swim jacket at all. The youngest is diving under the water in his lessons and has started trying to swim like his brother! You can watch the big guy in action here.

We have all enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, the learning process and the boys' confidence just keeps growing. We still have a way to go with technique but we feel confident that should they fall in a pool they could get to safety or at least keep afloat for a short time. Of course we hope this will never happen and cannot stress enough how children should been supervised by an adult 100% of the time they are in a pool. Learning to swim early can only protect them further!

Interesting fact: did you know babies are born with the ability to automatically not inhale water? Due to the physiology at birth, when submerged in water their windpipe automatically closes. This ability tapers off around 2 years of age so it's perfect to teach them a counting technique before this age. The "one, two, three" technique or other consistent words can help them know what to expect and when the natural ability no longer persists their brains will already know what to do when they here the words!