Once your kids have played with moving their bodies in the water and focusing on what that feels like, you can move into deeper water in the next swimming lesson. What do you do once you’re in deeper water, and how do you keep them feeling confident and expand on this swimming skill?

Stage 2 of Teaching Kids to Get a Feel for the Water

While you hold your child, lower your body into the water or move into the deeper water in the swimming pool, where you can still stand comfortably, so that the water is up to your shoulders. Make sure that you keep your child’s face level with your own to keep from accidentally getting water into his nose or mouth. Walk around in the water so that your child feels the flow of water around his body.

In this swimming lesson, experiment with different ways of moving your arms and legs through the water. Make big splashes. Make little splashes. You can do this while you’re holding him or while he sits on the swimming pool steps.

Once your child is confident in the water while you’re holding him close, create a bit of distance between your bodies and practice what you’ve already learned that way. Play with bouncing in the water so that your child starts to develop a sense of his own buoyancy and balance in the water. You can progressively move your bodies farther apart until you’re holding your child just under the arms or by the hands. You’re also teaching him to be confident on his own in the water. You can combine this with practicing getting into the pool.