The Swimming Life Skill Knowing how to swim is a necessity. You dont need to have super perfect strokes and protein bulked muscles to get you to the Olympics swim pool but at the very least, your child should be fearless of water, and be able to tread water to prevent drowning. Tessa had formal swimming lessons since she was 5. With swimming class at school every week, she very quickly learnt to swim and within a year or two, entered her first swim meet. Tia is now 5 but is refusing swimming lessons. So she self learns by paddling about in her water wing floaties that we keep deflating bit by bit every week so that she works just that much harder to keep afloat. We have never forced her to do anything she doesnt want nor pushed her in any way and as a result, she has taught herself many of the water skills by merely observing others at the pool and trying it out herself. She can now go underwater, hold her breathe, swim across the pool with half deflated floaties, go on water slides, and jump into the pool by herself. It wont be long now before there is nothing left to deflate on those floaties! We spend 2 hours every weekend at the pool because the kids LOVE it (I dont, seriously, I dont) and it gives them a good workout. Tessa swims 40-45 laps on the 25 meter pool in just under an hour and exercise is great for her health, heart and lungs. If your kids arent water safe yet, you might want to start exposing them regularly to the pool and eventually the sea. It is an important life skill. Both my girls have swam in open sea. Tia in floaties, of course.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 16:20:19 +0000