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Time to Play! Feeling the Water

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 great game to help your kids get a feel for the water.

Ask your kids to describe how the water feels. Make suggestions of your own. Does the water feel like pudding? Baby food? Milk? Juice? Watermelon?

Throw in some choices that are really silly. How silly can you get?

This game has the added benefit of providing free, frequent reinforcement of the lesson. Whenever your kids eat pudding or watermelon, they’ll get a reminder of the game, the fun you had playing it, and the way the water actually felt.

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How Learning to Swim Is Like Playing the Piano

It probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to hear that learning to swim is like learning to ride a bike, but did you know it’s also like learning to play the piano? Here’s how.

Athletes practice for a long time thinking about their form. At some point, form becomes natural—internalized. Without thinking about it, they continue to improve. When kids learn to swim, the process is very conscious for a long time, and there’s a lot to think about and a lot to feel. At some point, the knowledge starts to move into your child’s body instead of his head, just like walking or riding a bike.

If you’ve ever played a musical instrument, you’ve experienced this. You can play a piece of music you memorized years ago just by putting your hands on your instrument, but when you try to consciously remember what to play next, the ability slips away. This level of automatic proficiency comes to your child’s swimming after enough practice.

Don’t believe me? Try consciously thinking about what your body should do next the next time you go for a walk or run or ride a bike. Let me know if you can do it.

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The Four Aspects of Learning to Swim That Make It Different from Other Learning

Muscles learn by doing. Practice is important not only because your mind needs to understand what’s happening but also because your muscles turn repeated motion into reflexive action. When you’re teaching your kids to swim, focus on these four special aspects of learning to help them make the most of their time in the water.

4 Key Aspects of What Kids Learn in the Water

Learning a physical skill, including swimming, is all about listening to your body and getting a feel for the water. There are four key aspects of what your child is learning in the water.

  • How his own body moves
  • Spatial relationships
  • How much effort is required to produce different results or movements
  • The relationship of the water to all of the other things—his body, space, and effort

If you bring these four things to your child’s attention in every lesson, you’ll speed up his learning.

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Time to Play! Getting into 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. Getting into the pool is the first thing your kids need to learn. How they feel about it will have an impact on their entire swimming experience. How can you make it fun?

Try having your child sit on the edge of the pool and pretend he’s scooting off the end of a slide. Going down a slide is a familiar form of play, so it brings a sense of comfort with it. It’s also fun, so it brings a built-in feeling of pleasure. Be there to catch him after he scoots, and make sure to end with a hug.