Thanks to Shelley White for a mention in her article in The Globe and Mail.
Thanks for Reading!
I started this blog thinking that I wanted to help parents teach their own kids to swim, using the natural advantages of their relationship with their kids to make the process fun for everyone in the family. I wanted to provide tips and tricks and step-by-step guidance. I wanted to help parents use their time on dry land to reinforce what their kids learn in the pool.
Some of the information in this blog includes:
- How to prepare to teach kids to swim
- How to craft a teaching style that works
- How to structure swimming lessons
- What you need to know about kids’ minds and bodies before you start
- How kids learn and how to motivate them
- Important safety information
- Swimming lesson do’s and don’ts
- The sequence you should teach the skills in
- Specific, detailed information about how to teach each swimming skill
I hope the information in this blog is useful to you. I’m moving on to other projects and won’t be posting for the foreseeable future, but you can still get all this information and more in book form. Here’s how to get the book.
Thanks for reading,
Karen
Learning to Swim: What It Feels Like for a Kid
The better you understand what your kids are experiencing, the easier and more effective the process of teaching them to swim will be. Children are different than adults. (Surprise!) Understanding the differences will help you to put yourself in your child’s place and respond to his needs. Responding to your child’s needs will help to make the learning process fun and effective for both of you.
Kids’ bodies and physical abilities, sensory experiences, feelings, motivations, and perceptions of success all differ from those of adults, and they all affect how kids learn to swim. When you’re teaching your kids to swim, take time to put yourself in their shoes. (Not literally. Their shoes are too small for your feet.)
How Kids’ Bodies Affect Teaching Them to Swim
Imagine that your head is large compared to the rest of your body. How does that feel when you’re trying to float or balance in the water? Imagine that your limbs are short compared to your torso. How do you move through the water with limited leverage?
Imagine that your lung capacity is a lot smaller than a grownup’s. Does that make figuring out how to deal with your breath while you’re swimming more complicated? Imagine that you’ve got not much mass, a lot of skin relative to that mass, and low body fat. Can you feel how fast your body loses heat to the water? Can you feel how much less buoyant you are than an adult, thanks to your tiny bit of fat and small internal air flotation devices (aka lungs)? Wow, it’s not easy to figure out how to float! Big old head, not a lot of buoyancy.
Plus, your body is changing every single day. All that growing is exhausting! And you haven’t learned yet to predict when you’ll reach the end of your rope or to read the signs that tell you you’re getting cranky because you’re tired. You’re always surprised when you hit the exhaustion wall without warning. Every time.
Are you back in your own shoes now? What a relief. Remind yourself when you’re teaching your kids to swim that their bodies give them some extra challenges when it comes to learning to swim. Keeping your kids’ experience in mind will help you to be patient and to adjust your swimming lessons to work better for them, and if the lessons are working better for your kids, everybody’s having more fun.
Next week, we’ll look at how other aspects of kids’ experiences in the swimming pool differ from adults’, but tomorrow, it’s time to play!
Time to Play: Kicking
Kids learn by playing. The more you can make learning to swim fun for your kids, the more they’ll like it, the quicker they’ll learn, and the more fun you’ll have teaching them. Kicking is a critical swimming skill, but it can be tough to concentrate on the nuances when you’re just trying to stay afloat. This game is one that you can play on dry land to give your kids a chance to really get it without the pressure of being in the water.
Have your child sit in a chair and alternate pointing and flexing his feet. Is he fast enough to keep you from pinching his toes when he points them?