Swim safety is always most important. Children get excited especially when going for a swim with their parents so it’s very important that the parents enforce the same safety protocols as during lessons. For example, make sure children always walk, not run on deck. Parents should always be the child’s “water watcher” and always be within an arms reach. Parents be sure to give children the queue to jump! Be sure to say…” big toes on the edge and jump forward to me.”

Communication is essential. Parents, when asking a child to swim to you, make sure you stay in the same position and avoid walking backwards to create a longer distance to cover. Some children are not ready for that and if the parent doesn’t judge their breath control appropriately the child can end up gasping for air and panicking to reach the parent. This can create fear and uncertainty for the child.

It’s okay for the child to play in the shallow end where they can touch the bottom but make sure that’s not all they do! Practice their swimming where they can’t touch so they are forced to swim horizontally or do glides to the parent. Remember, “eyes in first, always push off the wall and look down”, to encourage a great start to a float, glide or swim.

Putting the child in Floaties and Inflatable devices gives them a false sense of safety. This promotes the child to be in a vertical position and undoes the skills achieved in the lessons. Once the child returns to lessons they will need to catch up on the basics again, such as breathing, kicking and arm movement. That’s why it is important to have fun but also practice floats and glides to work on their core skills. They can take some items to dive for, or to place in shallow water so that their games can also have a purpose. Above all, supervision at arms length always!