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Water Safety: 3 Things to Teach and 3 Things to Watch

When you’re teaching your kids to swim, water safety is the most important thing for them to learn. Here are three things to teach them and three things for you to watch for to help keep them safe.

3 Things to Teach

These three things are critical for your child to know, and they’re easy to teach them.

Teach your kids the rules of the pool.

Show your child where the pool rules are posted and explain them. Quiz him. Ask him to teach you the rules. Review them every time you arrive at the pool until they’re second nature to your child.

Teach your kids about the risks.

Don’t be afraid to explain safety risks to your child. Be calm and direct. You don’t want to make him unnecessarily afraid of the water, but you do want him to respect it and the safety rules. Explain what behavior is unsafe, why it’s dangerous, and how to choose different safe behaviors.

Teach your kids by example.

Set an example for your child. If kids aren’t allowed to jump in, neither should you.

3 Things to Watch

These three things are critical for you to pay attention to when your kids are in and around the water. (They’re important for you to watch for in yourself and other adults, too.)

Watch for hyperthermia as well as hypothermia.

In the same way that kids’ bodies lose heat rapidly in a cold pool, they can overheat quickly in a hot tub. Hyperthermia can cause weakness, dizziness, confusion, and loss of consciousness. Your child may experience the effects of the heat well before an adult would.

Watch for wandering into deep water.

When your child feels comfortable in shallow water, watch to make sure he doesn’t move to deeper water than is safe for his skill level. Kids like to use the wall to move and like to bounce. Both of these can accidentally take them to deeper water than they can handle.

Watch for shallow water.

The two most serious water injuries are drowning and spinal injuries. Most spinal injuries result from dives in shallow water. Always make sure you know how deep the water is before diving. Don’t let your child dive in any way in water that’s less than six feet deep.  Don’t let your child dive headfirst in any water that’s less than nine feet deep, or twelve feet deep if your child is diving from a board.

For more safety information, see:

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Time to Play! Blowing Bubbles

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. Blowing bubbles helps your kids learn to get used to putting their faces in the water. It also helps with regulating breathing. You don’t have to be in the pool to work on this skill. Try this game at the kitchen table.

Have your child blow through a straw into a glass of soapy water and see what happens. Have fun with it. Who cares if there’s a spill? It’s all about making bubbles. Does how hard your child blows make a difference in the quality and quantity of bubbles? How about how fast he blows?

Why doesn’t that happen in the pool? Talk about it. Take a straw to the pool the next time you have a swimming lesson and try it out.

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Weather and Water—Swimming Safety Tips

Since the Red Cross began working to teach water safety skills almost a hundred years ago, drowning deaths have dropped dramatically. Teaching your child to swim is one way to help keep him safe. These tips will also help keep your kids safe in the water.

Swimming Safety Tips for Weather and for Open Water

Going swimming takes us out of our element, literally. To keep your kids and yourself safe when you’re swimming, keep these safety tips in mind.

Weather

  • Know weather conditions and forecasts before you go swimming.
  • Don’t go into the water—including the shower at the pool—during a thunderstorm. Go inside. Wait fifteen minutes after the thunder stops before going back into the water.
  • Don’t go into the water in heavy rain or hail, during a tornado warning, or during high wind. High wind can make it harder to see—because of waves in the ocean—and can increase the risk of hypothermia even in a swimming pool.
  • Stay out of the water if fog is dense enough to interfere with visibility.

Open water

If you’re going to swim in open water, be prepared and educate yourself.

Swim where there’s a lifeguard on duty. The US Lifesaving Association reports that you’re five times more likely to drown at a beach without a lifeguard.

Don’t float (using a flotation device) where you can’t swim. The exceptions to this are in a lifejacket in an emergency situation and when your child is wearing one in a pool while you supervise.

If you’re going to swim in the ocean, educate yourself. Know the ocean, especially rip tides. Don’t fight the current. If you get caught in a rip tide, swim parallel to it until you reach its edge, then turn toward shore. Know and obey beach warning flags.

Use a US Coast Guard approved life jacket when boating, no matter what. Being a good swimmer is critical in a disaster, but it may not be enough to keep you safe in rough conditions, over long periods of time, or if you lose consciousness.

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Time to Play! Getting out of the Pool

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. One of the most important skills you can teach your child is how to get out of the pool. Here’s a way to use creativity and imagination to make practicing this critical skill fun.

Be like a monkey. Be like a crab. Be like a spider, an octopus, a sea star, a lemur. Be like a ladybug holding onto a blade of grass. How would all of these animals move along the wall? What other animals would use clinging and scooting as a way to move?