Swimming during the summertime is a great way to cool down. Swimming offers a lot of fun, a great form of outside exercise and memorable time of play and exercise for your children with other children and adults. It is fantastic exercise as it is not harsh on joints and muscles, making it easier to move about in the water than on land.
Swimming is a great source of therapy for certain physical disabilities. Swimming and swim safety skills are a necessity for all of us to learn. Even if you don’t live near an ocean, lake or river or even seldom see a body of water in which you can dive in to enjoy, your child will most likely at some time encounter a situation where knowing the basics of swimming will be needed. But, what if your child doesn’t know how to swim? What age is the best age to begin?
Some argue that the earlier the better in terms of learning how to swm. The theory is that a baby spends several months inside its mother surrounded by water. As soon after birh as possible, some think is best to introduce the water to the infant. Others believe that starting your chid too soon gives them a false sense of security. The child may think they have more ability and swimming skills than they actually have acquired. This could put them in danger if ever found alone around water.
As an actively-involved parenting family - one which is careful to teach your children what they need to know with safety skills included - do you outsource this learning to a swim instructor or can you teach your child to swim? If you know how to swim yourself along with some basic swim safety skills, then the decision is one of preference. If you decide to teach your child yourself, a great place to start is by getting a really good instructional book. Usborne publishes an excellent book on step-by-step strategies to teach your child to swim. It includes words to songs to sing to make the child comfortable in water with play, safety tips and suggestions on what age is appropriate and best for learning to swim. It’s called Usborne Parents’ Guides Teach Your child To Swim. As an extra source of instruction, ehow.com gives tips on how to teach your child to swim: If you do not know how to swim or you would prefer to have someone else teach your child to swim, there are wonderful community centers and pools that offer instruction at a reasonable price. There is a website called swim.com where you can put in your zip or city and find pools, instructors and more. There are many wonderful swimming instruction programs at community centers and pools.
Livestrong.com offers some swimming tips in this video:
If you’re ready to share some great summertime cooling off and great exercise, then decide when you want to start your child learning swimming skills, decide on a form of instruction - whether it’s you or someone else, and get ready to plunge into some life-long fun and safety in the water!
