How Do You Get Your Kids to Swim?

Teaching your kids to swim is a tricky thing. You don't want to scare your child by pushing him too hard, but you want your child to be able to handle himself in the water. After all, drowning is the number two cause of death for young children. So, learning to swim is a pretty esssential skill for your children to learn. But how do you get your kids into the pool? Sarah Burns of The Ohana Mama joins the panelists as Karen Walrond of Chookooloonks asks, "How do you get your kids to swim?"

Was it hard to get your kids swimming? Are they afraid of the water? Are you afraid that swimming isn't safe? View our blog posts about swimming and speak out in our comments.

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MomDot
2 yearss ago

salsamite
2 yearss ago

You do this: http://www.huggies.com.au/BeingAParent/SkillsAndActivities/KidsAliveProg... Don't start when they are three or four or five - start much earlier, like six months. Before six months I wouldn't recommend because of the nasties in public/shared pools, but from six months they can learn to swim - that's a fact. From day one, I would condition my baby for the water, for being prepared to go under the water. My son is three and a half, and we have been diving under waves at the beach together since he was one. You must make water fun, but it is equally as important to make sure your child has a healthy respect for the water, especially at the beach. When I realised my son was fearless when it came to the ocean, under my very controlled situation I allowed him to be knocked about by a few waves at the beach. He soon learnt he could not just run for the water without me. He still wanted to go swimming, but he wanted me close by when he did. That set my mind at ease that he was not going to just run into the waves without my knowledge when my back was turned. It really does only take two seconds to lose your child under a wave. Also, like anything, your child takes their cue from your behaviour/attitude. If you are visibly scared of the water, let someone else take your child swimming.

Loqi
2 yearss ago

I like the attitude of allowing him to get a little hurt and scared, but not injured for real. I do that with my son too. I want him to get hurt small when I'm around so he doesn't get himself hurt big when I'm not there. Babies are born with an underwater reflex, which fades about a half year after birth. If they go in the water often in their first months, they keep their "don't try to breathe underwater" instinct. Otherwise, they have to learn it the hard way, which can make them averse to the water.

jane999
2 yearss ago

lessons somewhere around age 5. no floaties, it makes them vertical, it's very hard to swim vertically.

Loqi
2 yearss ago

I think the biggest mistake people make in teaching or learning to swim is the assumption that staying at the surface is where you need to be. Floating smoothly is actually a difficult skill for a beginner. To me, the three most important novice skills are: 1. Don't panic when you're underwater. 2. Swim underwater by fanning, it's the easiest kind of swimming. 3. If you want to go to the surface, swim underwater, but up. My son was in swim water since he was a few months old. I started really teaching him to swim at age one and two. He was clingy at first too. Well fine. To get him comfortable underwater, we played riding games. He clung to me as I swam. We played games simulating different water animals. We'd do alligator rides, seal rides, lobster rides, and dolphin rides. Each time I'd introduce a new animal, I'd explain what to expect. The alligator gently sways left to right on the surface. The seal floats head up, and then dunks down (after an exaggerated upward rise as warning), swims forward for a few seconds and then surfaces. The lobster slowly crawls along the bottom for twenty to forty seconds. The dolphin swims in a sine wave above the water then under the water then above the water, forcing synchronized breathing. At first, I'd be very short under the water, but we gradually stayed under longer and longer. I was careful not to scare him and keep it fun. But I'd try to give him a slightly more challenging experience each time. We both had fun, and he progressed quite well. Then over the past year his grandfather has been consistently taking him swimming for several weeks. Being around other enthusiastic swimmers has been an immense benefit. And slightly older kids having a great time in the water helps the most. He just turned four and can really handle himself in the water. He has a strong dog paddle and has no trouble climbing out of a pool side without a ladder. We can work on fancy technique next.

Daddy Scratches
2 yearss ago

We've done parent/child swim classes at the Y with our kids since they were babies, and my son, now 6, can swim quite well without wearing a flotation device; my daughter, 4, still sports a swim "bubble" (which looks nothing like a bubble, but anyway ...), but we've found that both have benefited greatly from those courses. Having said that, the most sudden and substantial leap my son made in terms of overcoming his natural anxiety in the water was a result of us spending a weekend at my in-laws' last summer, during which his closest cousin, who is 8 months older, was fearlessly jumping into, and swimming about, the pool. Suddenly, my uber-cautious child was feeling a little more daring, and that change of attitude had a direct correlation with a rapid improvement in his aquatic abilities.

bittermelon
2 yearss ago

I enrolled my 4-year old son in the YMCA day camp program in my town. They bus the kids to a Y pool (since the camp is at another location) and have lessons EVERY day. Basically, it's all about having him take lessons consistently and being taught by someone else. And I agree, the peer pressure helps. With me, he would just cling. He doesn't use water wings or a tube at the Y during camp, but we allow him to do it at the town pool just so he can practice kicking and get comfortable with floating around without us holding him. And after a couple of weeks, he's even willing to blow bubbles. It's so nice to see him kicking around the pool, and I can't wait for him to learn to swim for real.

NJ_2_NorCal_Mom
2 yearss ago

MeMyselfandMommy
2 yearss ago

Moanna is only two, but she loves the water. We can't get her out of the bathtub, and she loves her little pool. We named her after the ocean, and can only hope that her love of the water will continue. I know that I am running out of time to get over certain fears I have (like jumping into the water, and waves). We've not been in the position for Moanna to see my love-hate relationship with the water, but I know when the time comes, I'll have to suck-it-up, and fake-it-til-I-make-it. I won't let that fear stifle her excitement to grow and learn.

RookieMom Heather
2 yearss ago

This momversation is very timely for me. I signed my four year-old up for intensive swim lessons starting on Monday (Mon through Thurs for two weeks. He tells me he refuses to take lessons and he never wants to learn to swim in his whole life. Such drama! We're trying not to force the issue but rather give him good exposure to having fun in the water and help him build his confidence that swim lessons will help him be safe. I'll check back in two weeks.

How Do You Get Your Kids to Swim?

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