Most children love to play in the water. Splashing and playing
during bath time can be the earliest stages of teaching your child how
to swim. While in the bath tub they can begin to put their heads under
the water and get used to how this feels. One of the best ways to teach
your child how to swim is as simple as taking them to a pool as often
as you can. If you have a pool of your own it is imperative that your
child learn how to swim as early as possible. A young child can so
quickly go out of the house and get in the pool without the parent or
caregiver knowing they are gone.
I taught my boys and my grandchildren how to swim by simply taking
them to the pool as often as I could. When my boys were two and three
my sister and her husband, who lived across the street from us put in a
pool. The pool was completed in August. My oldest son was three and
learned to swim before the summer was over. We took a trip at the end
of the summer and were staying at a motel. My son was swimming well
enough to go off the diving board by himself. When we first came out to
the pool he headed straight for the diving board. I watched the people
sitting around the pool. The closer he got to the board the closer they
were to jumping out of their chairs and diving in the water to save
him. He jumped in off the board and swam to the side of the pool. The
people leaned back in their chairs and grinned at one another.
Our younger son was a little more cautious and took a little bit
longer to learn how to swim. You have to work at their speed and not
try to force anything on them. Certainly not the "throw them in the
pool and tell them. 'sink or swim'" method. To begin with, hold them
and go under water with them and right back up. When they are
comfortable with going under water, have them stand on the side of the
pool and jump to you. When they jump, allow them to go underwater and
bring them right back up. Move back a distance in which they are
comfortable, and let them jump in and swim to you, beginning with very
short distances, such as two or three feet.
We have three grandsons that are 14 months apart. By the time they
came along, we lived in a neighborhood that had a neighborhood pool.
They learned to swim at two and three. They have birthdays in
September, October and November, so they were close to being three and
four. When we got to the stage of them jumping in and swimming to me, I
would line them up and they would jump in one at a time and swim to me.
The first one that reached me I would lift him around to my back on one
side where he could hold on. The second one I would lift around to my
other side and I would hold the third one in front of me and then carry
them to the ladder where they would get out and we would do the same
thing again and again. I felt like the mother monkey carrying her young
on her back. We had a good time.
When we took breaks, I put the little arm floaties on them. I am a
little hesitant to use floaties or life preservers on young children,
because they do give a false sense of security for the child, but
sometimes they are necessary. It is important that you spend time in
showing your children when they first begin that they are unable to
stay above water by themselves. Don't scare them, but tell them you are
going to let them go to show them they cannot swim yet. Our youngest
grandson had no fear, so I had to watch him more closely than the
others. He jumped in once by himself and of course went under. He was
paddling frantically, but did not take in any water. I was about four
feet from him so I was able to get to him quickly. Fortunately he was a
quick learner and never did that again. As it turned out he learned to
swim a couple of weeks before the other two older boys did because he
was not afraid for me to back up more. Before they jumped, I would let
them set how far back they wanted me to be in the water. Because they
set the limits and I honored their limits, they learned to trust me and
knew I would not do anything to hurt or scare them.
My oldest granddaughter is 3 years older than the boys. She learned
to swim early in the summer when she was three. Since she was our first
and only grandchild at the time, I was able to give her my undivided
attention. By July she was going off the diving board by herself. I
always waited for her by the exit ladder near the deep end. After
diving she would always swim up to me. One day she asked me if I could
touch the bottom of the pool, which was about 9 feet deep. So I went
down and touched the bottom and came up. After I came up, she wanted to
try. She was so buoyant she could not go down very far. After trying to
get to the bottom on her own several times, she finally asked me to
push her down. We were at our neighborhood pool with 2 life guards and
neighbors sitting around the pool. I could only think what they might
think if they saw me pushing my granddaughter under water! But my
granddaughter would not let up, and she wasn't going to until I helped
her touch the bottom of the pool. So I pushed her down with both hands
on her shoulders while looking around to see if anyone was watching us.
Even with my help on her shoulders she could not go all the way down.
She was so disappointed she asked me to push her harder. So I pushed
her down with my hands then down with my feet on her shoulders. I was
concerned that I would be taken away for child abuse and my flimsy
excuse of "But she told me to do it" would not stand up in court. She
was able to touch the bottom with the "hand and foot push" procedure
and came up very happy and saying, "do it again Nanna." Which, of
course, I did after checking the visual field of those around me.
We have very happy memories of those swimming days. Four of five of
my grandchildren are teenagers now and still love to swim and I enjoy
seeing them swim. I am looking forward to teaching my
great-grandchildren how to swim and this is why it is not only
important but beneficial in teaching your loved ones how to swim.
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