With summer rapidly approaching, a favored activity for you and your children is more than likely to be swimming. My daughter loves the water and if she could spend all day in it, she would. Swimming lessons are a great idea, especially for young children, to improve their skill level and to help maintain water safety.
Whether you sign your child up for swimming lessons at the YMCA, with a private instructor or try to teach them yourself, you will find that lessons are rewarding for both of you. You will worry less about your child if they are strong swimmers and you will be able to get more time in swimming yourself.
Swimming laps or just swimming in the pool with your children is a great way to get exercise. If you are spending all your time sitting on the edge monitoring them or holding their hands in the water, you may still have a lot of fun, but you won’t get a lot of exercise.
Depending on your child’s level of expertise, swimming lessons may include retrieving items from the bottom of the pool at 3 feet, 5 feet and 7 feet. Diving lessons can direct a child on how to enter the water safely. As anyone who has ever belly flopped can attest, you can hit the water the wrong way.
Swimming lessons can also encourage positive pool safety behavior. Positive behavior includes not crowding other swimmers, avoiding unnecessary splashing, no throwing items at other swimmers and not running in the pool area. When it comes to swimming, you should make sure your child is wearing sun screen and has a flotation safety device depending on their skill level.
Enjoy swimming this summer and help your children enjoy it with swimming lessons!