When you’re teaching your kids to swim, you’ll work together to bring them understanding of each skill. What are the steps you need to take to make this happen?

7 Steps to a Winning Teaching Style

Plan to teach one skill or one part of a skill at a time. For example, focus only on blowing bubbles to start. Focusing on more than one thing at a time is tough.

To teach a skill effectively, you can use a teaching pattern. This pattern is a structured way of teaching each skill. Using this structure gives you a way to think about what you’re teaching, and helps your kids know what to expect.  When they know what to expect, kids have one less new thing they need to focus on, and that frees up their attention to focus on learning the skill you’re teaching.

Here’s the basic pattern. Each of the elements will get its own post:

• Explain
• Demonstrate and set an example
• Explore
• Observe
• Give praise and support
• Give feedback and corrections
• Go with the flow

Using this logical structure when you introduce a new skill gives you and your kids a framework for teaching and learning. It also gives you the freedom to have fun and be creative without worrying about what you’re going to do next. And that’s the prize we’re after—teaching your kids to swim and making it fun.