Teaching Your Child to Swim at Home

Swimming!! My kids probably ask to go swimming every day in the summer. Either at the pool, the beach, at nana’s or at Aunties. They love swimming and I love watching them swim. Can you teach swimming at home? Heck yes you can!

Teaching your child to swim can be done. It takes practice and patience but can be accomplished. Focus first on getting your child comfortable with the water. Introduce water safety and then start lessons. Begin with having them swim small distances then increase the distance after they have become more confident and developed more skill.

Swimming lessons at home can be fun and a great way to spend quality with your child. Let’s dive a little deeper in to swimming at home.

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When Should a Child Learn to Swim?

It is never too early to learn water safety. Anytime you take your child near water you need to be diligent, supervise with out distractions and teach children to be careful. We have multiple children so we have relied on floaties and personal flotation devices (PFD’s) to assist us in making sure our kids stay above water. Even with floaties we have had some water scares and are thankful we are always paying attention around water. We had some private swim lessons a few summers ago at our pools but have relied mostly on teaching our kids to swim ourselves.

When making a decision on when to start teaching your child to swim there will be a few factors to consider. Do you have a pool? Is your child around a pool or water frequently? Is your child comfortable or scared in the water? Are they developmentally on track or delayed? Are you comfortable in the water? If you are around water frequently (with you or a caregiver) learning water safety should be a priority. If your child is fearful of the water getting them comfortable on the steps or along the edge would be my priority. If your child is like a fish and hops right in anytime you are near a pool you should want to get them swimming so you know they will have some tools to get them to safety if they jump in one day with out you close by.

American Association of Pediatrics recommends starting swimming lessons with kids at age one. After raising three kids, I recommend kids are more capable of swimming when they are a little older. I would say 3 or 4 years old is a great age to start learning the real nuts and bolts of swimming. Kids are more developed at 3 and are even better at following directions and controlling their bodies at 4. When they are younger than tree we mostly focus on water safety. Teaching them to get to the edge of the pool and find a way out just in case they fall in when unsupervised. And teach them how to balance in a PFD or roll on their backs to get their head above water.

Also keep in mind swimming is a great way to use and develop gross motor skills including balance, coordination and muscle strength. Swimming also tires kids out!! It is great for nap time and sleeping better at night. So if your child needs more gross motor skill work, or you are struggling with nap have a good swim day and see how it helps your child.

How Do I Teach My Child to Swim at Home?

As I mentioned we did a few months of personal lessons at our home pool. Our daughter is more introverted and we knew a large class of lessons wouldn’t be the best match for her. Personalized lessons were amazing and gave us a great foundation to then further practice and teach our kids ourselves.

Before we get into actually swimming there are a few things to think about and prepare to make sure your child is prepared:

  1. Your response to swimming and water will teach your child to love or fear the water as well. They look to their loved ones as role models and they look to us in new experiences for a guide on how to respond. So if you hate swimming or getting in they water have someone who loves the activity take over as the child gets comfortable. If you are willing to brave the water make sure to go out of your way to show no fear.
  2. Make swimming and learning to swim fun. Attitude is everything when learning. If your child is grumpy, upset or tired they won’t absorb all you are trying to teach. Make sure they are well rested, belly full and having fun. Make sure to mix fun in with the learning.
  3. Give your child the ability to float, give them a Puddle Jumper, water wings or a life jacket. (Links are to flotation devices similar to what we use on our kiddos). We used these floatation devices before our kids were old enough to really learn swimming. Being able to float and swim has gotten them comfortable in the water and allowed us to prepare them for swim lessons.
  4. Teach the difference between swimming with a flotation device and swimming without. Early in our swimming days we skipped this step and had an occasion where our son took his floaties off and tried to get in the spa without. We were all surprised by what happened after. Now we teach them that swimming without floaties is very different. It is important for your child to know that floating comes from the device and its not something they are doing themselves.
  5. Lastly teach your child how to hold their breath. This can be done out of water by having them hold for one or two seconds. But is best practiced in the water where they can experience what it feels like to not be holding. A few ways you can practice is to blow your own air in their face and then dunk them. The burst of air will have them hold their own and most likely close their eyes as well. Teach them to plug thier nose and close thier mouth when jumping in. Also have them practice jumping in to you and let them go a little bit deeper each time you catch. We started by catching our youngest with his head above water, then let him dip a little more down his face each time. Now when he jumps we may catch him when he is fully submerged or wait to lift him out once he has come back out. He always has a very concentrated face on when his head bobs back above water.

Now that you started practicing the basics we can dive in to lesson time. Pun intended…

When you start actively working with your child to swim start in a shallow end where you can stand comfortably. Have them hold on to the wall, or another person and swim to you. Start with the distance being close and then inch away as the child gets more confident. As they progress work on correcting thier kicks, arm movements and form. Make these lessons short and sweet. Start with 5 minutes of swimming practice and then switch tasks or play a little and then come back to practice again. The key to getting your littles to swim confidently is developing the skill with time. Muscles will develop, their balance will develop and soon they will be able to swim confidently with little to no help.

Once they have mastered getting from point A to point B with their heads above water you can try to swimming with their heads under water. Make sure they have mastered coding their breath or blowing out as they swim. Our daughter just started swimming under water this last month and she is getting better each time she practices.

How Do I Teach a 2 Year Old to Swim?

Technically you should be able to teach a 2 year old to swim. Of course it will come down to their desire to learn, their physical ability and development. Our baby just turned two this month and loves the water. We have spent this summer getting him used to floating on his back, kicking under water, practicing jumping and holding his breath. Now that he just officially turned 2 and we see that he is eager to swim we will start working with him to swim a little without his life jacket. We don’t expect him to swim large distances but will start with person to person or from the steps to the edge.

Some ways to gauge if your 2 year old is ready to learn swimming yet is to observe them around water and look for these signs:

  • Can your child keep their mouth closed and not drink the water?
  • Can he/she kick their legs continuously for at least 5 seconds?
  • Can the child hold onto the wall and move around the pool holding it?
  • Can they blow bubbles in the water?
  • Can your child grab the wall and pull themselves out of the water?

If your child can do these things they are totally ready. If not make sure to keep work on these skills while playing or practicing swimming.

Time it Takes to Learn How to Swim

How long will it take my child to learn how to swim? Swimming is a huge skill. How long did it take your child to learn to crawl, or walk, to talk or write? They practiced these skills for months before they finally do them alone. And then even after they first scoot across the floor or take their first steps it takes months to become efficient. Swimming will be the same. Swimming will take practice, it will take many hours in the pool. So take it easy, have fun and don’t try to rush.

Everyone develops at different rates and some kids pick up skills quickly while others take more time. My children have taken multiple weeks to develop some skills and entire summers of swimming to hone that skill. The frequency of practice and length of sessions should also be considered when thinking of progress. As well as the child’s age. A four year old has more motor develop and muscle strength than they did at three. So if you see a younger child swimming sooner than your own try not to compare. There are many factors that go into learning a new skill.

Activities to Help Your Child Learn to Swim

The benefit of swim lessons are little activities you and your child learn to encourage swimming. I tend to love little games when learning a new skill because I can use the terminology later in practice to signal to my children that we are actively practicing again. Here are a few cute activities we learned during lessons that may help you when teaching your child to swim at home:

  1. Talk to the fishes. Fishes are underwater and to chat with them we blow bubbles in the water. When you have blown a few bubbles put your ear to the water and pretend to hear a response from the fish. The practice talking again. Have fun with this one, I think the idea and make believe is really cute.
  2. Hi to the birdy and catch the fishes. Start by siting in the shallow end or on some steps and face the water. Bring your arms out in front of you with your hands open but fingers together (so the fish can’t escape). Windmill your arms trying to catch the fish when your arms are under water and say high to the birds when your arm is in the air. This motion will help them get an idea for how to use their arms to propel them in the water. As they get the motion advance to supporting their body while they use their arms to say hi to the birds and catch fish.
  3. Motorboat float. Hold your child under the arms facing you. Slowly start walking backward through the water, as you pick up speed their legs will drift back in the water and they will be in front float position. walk slowly and sing “motorboat, motorboat, go slow”. Pick up a little speed and sing “motorboat, motorboat, go fast”. Then encourage your child to kick their feet as you sing “motorboat, motorboat step on the gas!” Help them to get their body as parallel to the water surface as possible with the last line so they can experience kicking to move them forward. As they are more comfortable you can do the same song holding just their hands while they support themselves and keep their head out of the water. Help them see the aid kicking gives them on keeping their head up.
  4. Red light, green light. You are probably already familiar with this game so let’s adapt it to the water. Have your child start by sitting on the steps or edge of the pool with their legs in or on the edge of the pool hanging on to the side. Which ever seems appropriate for their skill level. On a green light have them start kicking like crazy, at a red have them stop and yellow can be a slow, light kick. Encourage them to point the toe while kicking and keep the legs straight. You can also have them sit on the steps or stand in shallow water and practice paddling fast with green and stop with red.

These are some of the ways we love to play and learn in the pool and hopefully they will help you as well! Have a safe summer and lots of fun in the water.

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