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Time to Play! Popup Breathing

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. Once your kids are able to take a breath whenever they need one, they’re well on their way to water safety. This game will help them get a feel for how to surface whenever they need to breathe.

One of the things that you need to teach your kids when they’re learning to swim is that pushing down with their arms moves them up in the water. To help them practice this without realizing they’re practicing, make it a game. How high up can they get by pushing down into the water with their arms?

Can they pop up so that their shoulders are above the surface? Their chests? Their waists? Can they pop up higher than the edge of the pool? Can they pop up higher than you can? (It’s up to you to decide whether to let them win.)

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Why the Wrong Kind of Praise Can Be Worse Than None at All When You’re Teaching Your Kids to Swim

Providing your kids with support each step of the way when you’re teaching them to swim can help them relax enough to move with patience and precision instead of frenetic energy. Generic praise isn’t enough, though. It can even be counterproductive. So how do you give effective praise?

Use what you know about your child when you’re teaching him to swim. Some kids respond well to frequent reinforcement. Others want you to keep out of their way. You know your child best. If you sense that he’s confused, frustrated, or distracted, help him regain his focus by giving him feedback.

Be specific and constructive when you’re praising your child’s progress. General feedback such as “you’re doing great” actually makes kids insecure about what they’re doing. If they know they’re doing great, but they don’t know how or why, they tend to be afraid that they’ll fail.

Instead, make your feedback as precise as you can. For example:

Instead of:

  • Great job!

Try saying:

  • I really like how hard you’re trying.
  • You’re doing a really good job of flicking your foot when you kick.

The first kind of praise, the generic “Great job!” kind, doesn’t give your child any information about how to keep getting positive feedback from you. Specific praise gives him a way to duplicate his success and feel good about his efforts. The better he feels about learning to swim, the more he’ll want to get into the pool for the next swimming lesson, and the more fun you’ll have teaching him to swim.

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Using Your Powers of Observation to Teach Your Kids to Swim

Part of the process of learning is a feedback loop. You try something, watch how it’s going, and adjust your approach accordingly. If you don’t watch how what you’re practicing is going, you risk making a habit of bad form. How can you hone your skills of observation to help your kids practice swimming skills the right way?

First, don’t expect very young kids to learn strokes very well or to move quickly in the water. Think of how difficult other activities requiring coordination, such as throwing or kicking a ball, are for them. They’re not going to look as polished as adults when they’re little, no matter how much they practice. They’re just not developmentally ready.

Your observations and feedback, though, can help your child to get the best feel for what he’s doing and the best approximation of good form that he’s ready to achieve.

While you’re teaching your kids to swim:

  • Watch them from the front, back, side, and underneath.
  • Start by watching the whole body.
  • Look for blips in the overall rhythm and unevenness in the sides of the body.
  • Look to see if the major movements are flowing.
  • Next look at the smaller body parts involved in the movement, to see if they’re supporting or working against the overall movement.
  • Finally, watch parts of the body that aren’t specifically involved in the practice.

Even when they’re just blowing bubbles, you can look for tension in their arms and legs, so that you can help them relax. When they’re practicing kicking, you can watch not only the overall movement, the feet, the hips, and the knees, but also the position of their heads and the expressions on their faces. Use your peripheral vision to watch the quality of movement of the whole body when you’re focusing on one body part. Even if you don’t act on what you notice right away, the information you get from careful observation will be useful as your lessons progress.

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How to Use Exploration to Teach Your Kids to Swim

The more your kids direct their own learning when you’re teaching them to swim, the more engaged and ready to learn they’ll be. Instead of directing them, you need to involve them in the process of discovery, but how do you do that?

After you explain and demonstrate a swimming skill, use questions and suggestions to guide your kids through the process. This method of teaching is a little bit like being a journalist. Instead of asking yes/no questions, ask open-ended questions that give your kids a chance to use their problem-solving skills to learn to swim. For example:

Instead of:

  • Can you blow bubbles?

Try:

  • If you were going to blow bubbles, how would you start?
  • What’s your favorite way to blow bubbles?
  • Show me how you blow bubbles.
  • Let’s blow bubbles together.

Give suggestions or clues to help. Instead of saying, “Touch the water with your lips,” say, “What would happen if you touched the water with your lips?” or “How about trying to touch the water with your lips?”

Use games and imagination to reinforce and expand skills and to make repetition and practice interesting. Games and imagination engage the learner so that he practices without realizing it’s practice. Games also distract from fears and discomfort.

Has your child ever told you he’s hungry only at bedtime after the fun and activity of the day are finally over? Playing games and using imagination when you’re teaching your kids to swim will help them experience the swimming lesson as a fun, flow-state activity. They’ll want to stay in the pool and keep practicing, and they’ll want to come back tomorrow.

Kids learn by playing. Plan ahead, choosing several games to try. If one doesn’t interest your child, try another. When your child tries changing or expanding a skill you’re practicing or a game you’re playing, you might be tempted to narrow his focus. Don’t. Encourage him to try things he initiates, as long as you’re there to keep him safe.