What You Should Know When Teaching Your Child to Swim
Teaching your child to swim is one of the best things you can do. Swimming is a survival skill and teaching your little ones early on is essential. However, it’s not always easy to teach kids to swim, especially if they’re resistant to the idea. Don’t worry, because we have some tips to share with you to make swimming classes more fun and engaging for your little one!
Use Woggles
Instead of using fixed flotation tools, such as armbands or rubber rings, use two short woggles instead. Woggles help children to find their own independence in the water and give them more ability with their own buoyancy. Moreover, they will have freer movement in the water to use their arms and legs more easily.
Using fixed flotation tools can have children become too reliant on them, which may hinder their learning. Short woggles are best to use here because they only provide minimum flotation to move safely in the water.
What you can do here is to start your child with one woggle under each arm while they’re placed halfway along each woggle, so they are well-balanced front to back. You can be in front of them to help your child build more confidence. When your child gets the hang of it, you can go to their side to help develop their leg kicks and arms.
Remember, when teaching your child to swim, it’s crucial you allow them a lot of independence as much as possible. You can also use pool toys as they will help your child reach and provides them with a great target to aim toward, which will be helpful in extending their independence.
Once your child becomes more confident, you can remove the woggles and put the remaining woggle across their chest and under each arm of your child. At this point, their kicks are more developed and they can support themselves across the chest—only this time, they need to work harder. It is also at this point when they can control their own balance and buoyancy much better.
Make Them Swim on Their Back
Being able to swim on your back is an important life skill; therefore, it’s crucial for your child to learn this as well. Once they’re comfortable doing so, their airways will be clear should they need to use life preservation skills.
The first thing to teach your child is to float—begin with their head resting on the shoulder, but with a long woggle to support their lower back. Slowly, walk backwards with your child floating on the water. As their confidence grows, encourage them to kick their legs so they can create their own movement in the water; when they are more confident, remove their head from your shoulder and rest it in your hands.
Let Your Child Swim!
Teaching your child how to swim is very important. Indeed, it’s a life skill that you can teach early on. In fact, the earlier you teach your children how to swim, the better. Therefore, these two tips will help you teach your child how to swim. Soon, your child will be swimming like a dolphin!
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