Posted on

The Four Things to Do before You Get into the Pool to Keep Your Swimming Lesson Safe and Streamlined

When you’re teaching your kids to swim, time in the pool is valuable. You only have fifteen or twenty minutes of water time before your kids start to get uncomfortable or lose focus, and at that point they’re done learning. Do these four things before you get into the pool to make the most of your time in the pool.

Make sure there’s a working phone nearby.

Nothing is more important than safety when you’re teaching your kids to swim. In case of emergency, you’ll dial 9-1-1 right away.  Prepare for that by making sure there’s a working phone nearby before you get into the water. Check for a dial tone. A landline is the best option because it gives emergency responders the location of the phone automatically.

Go to the bathroom.

Kids have an uncanny ability to wait until the worst possible moment to need to go to the bathroom. You’re next in line at the store with a huge basket of groceries. You’re just about to find out whether the animated hero of the movie gets out of a sticky situation. You’re thirty seconds into your swimming lesson.

It doesn’t help that being in the water tends to encourage the need to urinate. You can’t completely eliminate the possibility that your kids will interrupt your swimming lesson just when you’re starting to teach them, but making a trip to the bathroom part of your routine every time you prepare to get into the pool gives you the best chance you’re going to get for an uninterrupted lesson.

Empty mouths and blow noses.

You shouldn’t eat before swimming anyway. (Digesting requires energy, and your kids need all of their energy to swim.) You never know when your kids will find a stray Cheerio tucked into a corner of their booster seat on the way to the pool, though. Now’s the time to make sure that your kids don’t have food or chewing gum in their mouths.

Prep your post-pool equipment.

Have towels, a warm drink—even if it’s hot out—and a snack ready to go.

Taking these steps before you get into the pool when you’re teaching your kids to swim will help make the lesson go smoothly.

Posted on

Time to Play! Body Shape and Position

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. Here’s a game you can play on dry land that will help give your kids a feel for the best body shape and position for swimming.

A major advantage you have when you’re teaching your kids to swim is that you can try things out of the pool that help your kids learn to swim. The next time you’re at the playground, try this. Have your child hang from the bars or rings. Does his body feel long? Does it feel loooong? Have him stand on the ground reaching for a bar or ring that’s too high for him to grasp. How does it feel?

That stretched feeling, or as close to it as possible, is a good one to practice. Kids tend to scrunch their bodies up and revert to a dog paddle when they’re learning to swim, but ideally they should keep their bodies long. Having a no-pressure reference point from dry land will help them know what to aim for when you’re teaching them in the pool.

Posted on

How to Structure Your Swimming Lesson to Make the Best Use of Your Time in the Pool

Here’s another huge advantage you have over swimming schools. What is it and how can you use it when you’re teaching your kids to swim?

It’s time out of the pool.

Of course you’ll prepare what you’re going to teach well before you get to the pool. Make sure what you’re planning to teach is a single skill. If you can break it down into simpler pieces, break it down and pick just one of the pieces to teach.

You can also take advantage of the time you spend away from the pool to prepare your child for what the day’s lesson will be. Over breakfast, you can talk about what you’ll be learning, why it’s important, and what’s fun about it. The swimming teacher you hire doesn’t have that luxury. They have to spend valuable pool time doing the things you can do before you and your kids get wet.

Start Teaching Your Kids to Swim on Dry Land

Talk with your child about what you’ll be doing. Ask your child what parts of the body he thinks he’ll be focusing on or using most. Ask why it’s important to learn the skill. Ask how he thinks it will feel. Ask what he thinks the favorite part of the lesson will be. Help him visualize how his body will move. Will he be moving like a fish? Like a boat? Tell him a story about the movement. Compare it to other animals or other activities he already knows.

Practice any elements of the skill that you can on land. Blow bubbles in a bowl or sit on the edge of a chair to practice kicking.

Lay as much groundwork as you can for your lesson while you’re at home, at the park, or out doing errands.  That way, when you’re at the pool, ready to start the lesson, you can use more of your valuable pool time just for learning and practicing, instead of for explaining.

Structure the Swimming Lesson

Each lesson should last fifteen to twenty minutes. If your child appears happy to continue and comfortable in the water—not too cold or tired—you can spend as long as half an hour on your lesson.

Stay tuned for details on each part of the structure, coming next week. Tomorrow’s Friday, though, and Friday is time to play.

Posted on

How to Leverage an Advantage You Have Over Every Swimming School When You’re Teaching Your Kids to Swim

Your ability to adapt your lesson plan to exactly what your child needs on any given day gives you a big advantage over swimming schools that have group lessons or college students teaching from a rote formula. How can you leverage this advantage?

Look for cues.

If your child says he’s bored or looks bored, move on to something else even if you’d planned to spend more time on the current skill. It may be that he’s approaching mastery of the skill at his level.

Take the feedback your child gives you, in words and in body language, about how he’s experiencing the lesson. If he’s tense or unhappy, ask him about it. Take a short break, play a game, or switch to a skill he’s already mastered.

If your child seems fascinated by practicing a skill or exploring something new, and you’d planned to move on to something else, let him stick with it until he’s exhausted his interest.

Follow your child.

The plan you make for each swimming lesson is a starting point. Let your child’s responses to what you’re teaching determine how closely you follow your plan. The more you follow your child’s interests, the more he’ll get out of the lesson, even if what he’s learning isn’t exactly what you thought it would be.

When you’re learning to swim, you don’t have the same level of control over your body and your life as when you’re on land. That lack of control can be stressful or scary. The more you let your child control what’s happening in the water, the more confidence he’ll have and the more comfortable he’ll feel about trying new things. The more new things he tries, the more quickly he’ll learn how his body works in the water. The better his understanding of how his body works in the water, the easier it will be to learn each new skill. Letting your child lead you away from your original lesson plan when you’re teaching him to swim can make the entire process of learning to swim go more smoothly.