Teaching Noah to swim
Posted by Amber , Friday, July 25, 2008 Friday, July 25, 2008
I have always wanted Noah to feel safe and comfortable in the water, so now that we have a pool in our townhome complex, I have been getting him into the water as much as possible.
I grew up with someone terrified of the water, and it was a challenge because I wanted to enjoy the water with her and I couldn't help her feel more comfortable with it. My little sis (sorry Ashley) would get into the swimming pools shallow end, and would play on the beach at the lake, but would never attempt deep bodies of water in fear of drowning. We even took swimming lessons together as children, and she never progressed to the next level, because she would not jump in and swim to the teacher. So because of that, I really want Noah to get used to the water so he can save himself from drowning if he fell in, and so that he can have fun and feel safe when swimming.
He is 16 months old, so I thought that bringing him in with me, and helping him to feel safe in a different environment was pretty much all I could do to get him started. When we go to to pool, we usually bring a floating device that he sits in and he just floats on top comfortably and for a short time during our pool time, I would get him out of the float and swim around the pool with him. He is very comfortable with me holding him. I can put him in up to his neck and he is fine. Well one day, Ben and I saw this couple with a young child, and the kid was actually swimming by himself. The child would submerge his whole head in the water and bob around kicking his legs and moving around. I thought it was amazing! We began talking to the parents and learned that the child just turned two! I never thought a child could do something at such a young age. When we got home, I looked up infant swimming lessons online, and found out that children as young as 6 months can learn how to swim. They can learn techniques to save their life if they fell into a pool. So I read about teaching your child basic swimming skills, and I have started teaching Noah these basic steps.
Day 1: Today we worked on closing his mouth and holding his breath under water. Our goal was to encourage him to dip his face into the water, hold his breath and come back out not choking on pool water. At first his mouth was wide open and he sucked a whole bunch of water down, but we encouraged him and said make a "mmmm" sound and he dipped his own face in without us doing anything. He came up not choking at all. He did it again and again! It lasted a total of a couple minutes of the same step before he was done with it, but I am so excited that he understood that when your head is in the water, you don't inhale. He naturally learned how to hold his breath underneath!
I can't wait to see him learn more and more. I am really excited he is feeling comfortable with it already!
Check this video out to see what our ultimate goal is...
http://www.infantswim.com/home.html
I hope you all have a fabulous Friday!
