Parenting

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swimming with kids

Kim Purnell, professional swimming instructor, recommends that 6 months is the ideal age for babies to start swimming as they have no fear and enjoy all the activities in the water. Of course it’s never too late to start and the teachers are able to adapt the program to suit all ages.

Teaching a young child to swim is all about:

  • Water awareness
  • Water Safety

Swimming with kids

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Apart from ensuring that your child learns to enjoy the water, the main aim is to teach a child from even the youngest of children to swim to safety. To do this they are encouraged to jump into the pool, turn around, reach up to the side of the pool and climb out unassisted. With repetition and fun the aim is to ensure that this simple lesson can help the child to save themselves if required.

Kim is particularly passionate about teaching young children to learn about water awareness and basic swimming skills as her nephew recently drowned in a tragic accident. She hopes that by teaching kids to swim she may help to prevent this tragedy from occurring again.

What can you do to encourage your child to love the water?

  • Letting water run over your child’s face, even when they are a newborn, can help them to feel comfortable in the water.
  • Show excitement and delight rather than worry and fear when they are in the water.
  • Get Dad involved, weekend swimming lessons are becoming well known as the “Dad fest”.

Further reading on the Huggies site:

For more information see Episode 10 Entertaining kids or Parenting .

Visit Huggies mobile site