From birth on, children will likely be around water. Whether visiting a place with a pool, lake or stream, children have opportunity to experience water. The earlier they learn water safety skills, the safer they are in these situations. If a child falls in the water, something so simple as back floating skills could save his/her life.
After the basics of being comfortable with putting their heads under water, breathing when in the water and back floating, children can start to learn the skills needed to swim. Proper kicking and arm motions make movement in the water possible. After they can do these motions separately, it’s time for them to put it all together so they can move in a forward motion through the water.
But water safety is a different animal. A child needs to be able to keep their cool, figure out when they are in the water and find safety.
A good way to start teaching this is to simply have them jump vertically into the water with the challenge to find the wall after they come to the top. You should probably start by having them jump close to the wall and then increase the challenge each time by having them jump a greater distance from the wall each time.
These skills keep even your daredevil toddlers safe. You have less worry if they’re playing around water knowing that – if they end up in the water – they can at least float until safe.
Of course, it’s important to stay just an arm’s length away as these challenges are unfolding – just in case the child gets into distress or just gets scared.
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