Teaching a toddler swimming

[Plarka]

My daughter is 22 months old and hasn't been to lessons or a program, but I have taken her to the pool about 2-4 times a month since she was 8 months. She loves the water and is confident.  She jumps in, kicks her legs, moves her arms, blows bubbles, sometimes I dunk her underwater, and I don't know what to do next with her! 

I've been looking into local swimming lessons for her age group.  I like the sound of the Little Dippers type classes for infants, where they go underwater, but I'm looking for something like that for her age.  As all of you on this forum, I want her to be stimulated and learn everything possible, and not underestimated just because of her age! We know babies and toddlers can learn and do so much more than people think!

Do any of you take your toddler to lessons, and can you tell me what I should look for in the classes, and what questions I should ask?  There are different ones in our area and I don't really know how to compare them.

[trinity papa]

Actually your doing wondeful .....

my girl just started swimming back this summer 3 times now, and she is 17mth ... started at 5mth and took a 7 months break over winter .....  yet she is happily back in the water .... i dunk her head in .... and now she is dunking her own head in ..... of course to say she can swim is not true ... she holds on to my arm trying to pull her head and chest above water and kicking her legs too .... but sometimes she is happy to just glide along the water on my arm ....

My next step would be to teach her bouyancy ..... that is to teach her her breathing can either help her float or sink her ..... also to teach her how to float on her back ..... this way when she is tired or if she is panicking .... she will be able to float on her back to rest or to calm herself down .... its part of survival skills .... which i hope to teach her by the end of this summer .... as well as to blow bubbles of course .... which sh eis learning now ... back float is not easy ...... they tend to panick.

Next yr probbaly will teach her to dive underwater, kicking and arm work ........ which if you pay money to swim instructors like i remembered when i was very young .... they just tell the kids to hold the edge and kick kick kick ..... 

[floyd_941]

My son is three months and at six months we planon doing the mommy and me course at the ymca but a pogram called ISR is the best I hear but very expensive so were just going to the ymca to get him familiar wit hthe water then i'm going to ISR.

[linzy]

There is a Doman type book for teaching swimming.  It is called "How to Teach your Baby to Swim From Birth to Age 6"
http://www.gentlerevolution.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=G&Category_Code=FEATURE

I have used it and it has an excellent stepwise progression from infancy through several hundred yards of crawl stroke by age 6. And it is actually on special right now on the gentle revolution website. 

Another, good thing about this book is most of the swim classes around me don't start actual swimming until age 3, prior to that it is just mommy and me, and water comfort type things.  Whereas, this book will help you get your child swimming regadrless of age.

[Jillpea]

I started taking my son to swimming only 4 weeks ago. I phoned several pools during summer but we had to go on waiting lists. I checked them out by just going with my son for a paddle and getting price lists. The indoor one I really wanted (also the cheapest) finally had a vacancy, so we started then.

His class is brilliant, it's half an hour and all to nursery rhymes (this is the way we splash our hands, humpty dumpty sat on the pool wall, I'm a little tea pot (although we sing pancake) on my back I'm a little pancake swimming flat. etc). Somehow we incorporate heaps of pool safety into the rhymes. What's the time Mr Wolf, we count with the little ones holding onto the pools edge by themselves. Eensey Weensey Spider the toddlers hands crawl along the side and as the song sings up the water spout, we show them how to put one leg up and pull themselves out of the pool.

I think around this age the most important thing is water safety rather than being able to swim. My classes say that within 6-8 months, if your toddler fell into a pool or other body of water they should be able to get to the side and depending on the pool get themselves out. I think that is marvellous, buying yourself precious time to react and the baby possibly saving themselves if an accident was to happen is paramount.

[mooncake2]

Try this.  http://www.babyswimming.com/
If you're in the US, you'll be lucky as they have courses there.  I couldn't find one in my city in Malaysia.  The only one available is 4 hours from the place I stay.

I bought their books and dvds.  Pretty informative on how to get your baby to adapt to the water, then slowly introducing the swimming skills.

[MonkeynoseMomma]

mooncake2,
Thank you for posting this website.  karma

[shellychan2008]

See the book cover "How to Teach you Baby to Swim" at the following:

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/shellychan2008/article?mid=2836


Swimming course for 11-month old baby:

http://hk.myblog.yahoo.com/shellychan2008/article?mid=2913

[Isabeau]

Sounds like you're doing a great job.  Just getting the kids to stick their head under the water willingly is a huge part of the swimming lessons program that my son has been in lately.

Other skills that they've expected of him (he's three, but it gives you something to picture long term):

Holding breath under water.  In the program that my son was in they tell him to stick his face halfway under (like a crocodile) and blow bubbles.  Blowing the air OUT keeps them from sucking it into their lungs. 

Every lesson they had them jumping off the side of the pool.  Eventually they let the child go all the way under before bringing them back up.

holding on to the side of the pool and kicking, kicking, kicking.

Front float -- they had to float on their tummies, at first with someone's hand under their belly, and reminding them to blow bubbles and to hold up their tummy.  Eventually they removed the hand.  The expectation was somewhere from 3-5 seconds or so at his age.

Back float (seemed easier for whatever reason).  Same thing -- starting with a hand under, reminding them to hold their tummy up above water. 

log roll -- they had to learn to roll in the water -- all the way around, front to back and back to front.

Front and back glide -- they had them point their hands out in front (telling them to make a pencil or a rocket or whatever), and lay down and kick!

They also did a lot of swimming with the help of life jackets or those pool noodles, just to get the feeling of independent swimming, with no one hanging onto them, holding them up -- letting them naturally figure it out for themselves a bit.

I think that about sums it up!

[fatima786]

hi there!

we've just had our second swimming lesson for the year.

we use to swim from when Sa'ad was 7 to about 11 months. we stopped because he was crying alot in his 11th month of swimming. we took him to the doc and it turned out that his adenoids were enlarged 100% and it was blocking the entire passage. we had an op done to remove it and we hadnt been back since now.

Sa'ad n i do evrything together as my family doesnt live near us so no babysitters. we started swimming at a place called candy bubbles. here the kids swim with the instructors and i dont go in the water.

for the first lesson he wasnt happy being away from me. the second however he absolutely loved and nagged to go back. its emotional knowing that he is growing up now and dosnt need me that much. his teacher is robin and kim.

i think the teacher found it strange that Sa'ad asked them wheres the thermometer ( he learnt from nhockadays files) and he goes on about the fire extinguisher!

ive used the doman swim book as well. very helpful for early swimming.

[nhockaday]

i think the teacher found it strange that Sa'ad asked them wheres the thermometer ( he learnt from nhockadays files) and he goes on about the fire extinguisher!

Ha Ha, that's so funny.
I'm glad he's liking swim lessons too.

[Autumn]

Hi,

I second what Linzy said. Glenn Doman's book works great and there's a guide to follow which makes it easy. I am teaching my 2.5 and 5 yr old to swim in our large master bathtub. We started from the beginning of the book. Since we have only been at it for a few weeks we are still focusing on going under water. It is going very well. Matter of fact....IAHP told me to do it this way if we had no pool. My 2.5 yr old goes under for 12 seconds and my almost 5 yr old goes under and swims and retrieves items off the bottom of the tub for more than 33 seconds! Can't complain for 3 weeks of lessons! And it's free!

Hope this helps some!

Autumn

[linzy]

I just wanted to update.  We have used the Doman book for our son, and now at 3y4m he can swim multiple laps of the pool with a crawlstroke.  He still however does not have the side breathing down and lifts his head up frontward to breath which disturbs his swimming.  We recently started him in swimming lessons (as the outdoor season here will end soon and we wanted him to have a way to keep up his skills in the winter) and he is in a class with all 5 and 6 year olds and doing great. throughout our swimming adventure there have been many times when he seemed to stop moving forward or even move backwards, but overtime when I look at the big picture he has had amazing progress.  I am technically inept, but maybe I can get my husband to post a video. I just wanted to let people know even if you get frustrated keep at it, and you will see results.

[Autumn]

WOW Linzy, I didn't realize your son could swim so far! That's awesome! How does he feel about going under? And that would be really cool if you were able to post a video!!

Hope you're pregnancy is going well! 

Best Regards,
Autumn

[linzy]

Thanks, Autumn, and of course the same to you.

Yep, it's just recent, about three weeks ago he struggled through his first lap (after previously being able to swim widths) and now he can swim a lap no problem. It's really exciting.

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