How Do You Introduce a 3-year-old to Swimming?
If you have a youngster, this article on how to teach a 3-year-old to swim might help you with handy tips.
In the past, we have looked at the best age to start swimming lessons. We did not look at how to carry out the swimming lessons.
If you want to teach a 3-year-old how to swim, you have to make it very interesting. For kids, there are no two ways about this; it just has to be fun.
If there is no fun, they will simply do it so that they don’t attract your wrath, and this is going to make the swimming lessons even harder.
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Can you teach a 3-year-old to swim? 6 super tips
You can teach yourself how to swim easily. But with children, you have to have a strategy and a plan. You need to have a training session figured out from the beginning to the end before you can get started.
Follow the tips below to successfully train your 3 or 4-year-old to swim:
Ensure safety first
First, you should teach children how to swim in the shallow end of the pool. This is safe, and the children also feel safe. With their minds at peace, they can enjoy learning how to swim.
In addition to swimming at the shallow end, you also need to invest in safety gear for the kids. For instance, you can get him or her a flotation device, such as a vest or a life jacket for kids. While they will be bulky, they are important because your kid stays afloat in the water.
The cardinal rule for training a toddler to swim is to always keep your eyes on them. Not even for a second should you take your eyes off your kid.
Apart from drowning, you also want to ensure that your toddler does not swallow pool water.
Make it a game and have fun
Buy several floating toys and get into the pool with them. That way, you can encourage the kid to go after the toy so that they can improve their arm and leg movements.
Three-year-old toddlers are full of energy, and they love the water. Actually, it is you who might have a problem keeping up with yours.
Some of the floating toys that you can buy for your kids are durable. So you can use them to play in the pool even when the kid is older. For instance, a water gun is very handy for summer pool games.
If you do not have all these toys, just toss a ball into the pool and encourage your kid to fetch it. That is going to encourage them to use their arms and legs to kick in the water.
Choose a proper time to train your 3-year-old how to swim
Choosing the appropriate day and time to teach a kid how to swim is paramount. If the water is too cold, your baby might hate the water, and from then on, training them to swim will be hard.
Summer is the best time to teach kids how to swim. The water is warm, the sun is high, and swimming is the only pastime that makes sense. Besides, everyone will most likely be swimming, so the kid does not feel isolated.
Also, how to train a three-year-old to swim requires you to choose a time when the pool is a bit isolated so that the child can learn. Three, four, and even five-year-old kids are easily distracted, so you should book an early training session.
Start familiarizing your three-year-old with water at home
If your three-year-old kid has never been in the pool before, you can start familiarizing him or her with water right at home.
Start by filling the bathtub with warm water, and then allow the kid to experience the buoyancy of the water. That should banish the fear of too much water from their hearts immediately.
Read: Does water go inside you when you swim?
Also, you want to teach the kid how to keep water from their eyes or how to get comfortable with the water getting all over their face.
At first, your child will resist putting his or her head in the water. However, with encouragement and subtle nudging, you can do it. You can also get some helpful tips on how to get a child to put his or her head in the water.
When your child is safe with water all over their face, it is time to take them out to the pool for more training.
Teach your kid about swimming pool safety
Even when they are as young as two years old, they can understand basic things about swimming pool safety.
The first rule to drum into them is that they should never go to the pool with anyone apart from mom or dad. Teach your three-year-old that he should never go to the pool alone.
Of course, installing a swimming pool fence is always a better bet for safety. If there are lockable gates, lock them. Kids love playing with water, so chances are that anytime they get an opportunity, they will wander to the pool.
Keep the swimming training sessions short and fun
When training a three-year-old to swim for the first time or to do anything new, you need to understand something about their attention span.
A three-year-old can hold attention span for 6 to 9 minutes without being distracted. Therefore, going by that premise, you need to know that a swimming training session that extends longer than 15 minutes is really not going to be productive.
Now, if your child seems afraid of the water, the swimming training session should be shorter. Any longer than necessary, the child will start looking at swimming as a punishment rather than as a pleasurable activity.
It is better to break one session into three or more, if necessary. That way, you take advantage of the kid’s attention span before it starts to wane away.
In the very first days, keep the introductory session much shorter. If the kid shows signs of boredom, it is either time to make the session more interesting or to stop it and take a break.
How to Teach a 3-Year-Old to Swim; FAQ
It is never as easy as learning how to ride a bike, but someone has to teach a three-year-old how to swim, and who better than you? To make this topic more enlightening for you, here are a few frequently asked questions:
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Can a 3-year-old learn to swim?
There is no better age than three to start teaching your child how to swim. By this age, he or she is able to grasp the basic demands of swimming.
They can get comfortable in the water, and by the way, skills learned at this age are hard to forget. Besides, swimming is a survival skill, so you want your kid to learn it as soon as possible.
How do I teach my 3-year-old to swim?
Start by laying down some basic swimming pool safety rules; get the child used to a lot of water in the bathtub at home; get the kid to wear a life vest; and, most importantly, make the swimming lessons a lot of fun with games and shorts. Choose a nice, warm day to learn swimming.
What is the fastest way to teach a child to swim?
There is no fastest way to teach a child to swim apart from being super consistent and making the lessons fun. You can also reward him with a treat if the session goes well.
Do not force your child to learn how to swim faster than they should. Also, find out whether they have a fear of water, and if they do, teach them to be comfortable with it.
How long does it take for a 3-year-old to swim?
It will take at least 1 year for a three-year-old to learn how to swim alone and comfortably in the water. It makes a lot of sense to train them this long because, by then, they will be 4 years old. You can make this time shorter by teaching them how to swim for more than 30 minutes per week.
At what age can a toddler swim?
Experts say that by 4 years old, toddlers can swim very well and have proper brain and limb coordination. However, it is best to start their training at the age of 3 years.
Since you can train them for a year or 6 months, they will have gained enough skill to swim very well on the shallow end of the pool.
Can I teach my kid how to swim on my own?
Yes, you can do this from the comfort of your home, in an inflatable swimming pool, or in the main pool, but in the shallow end.
You might want to get some tips, such as what you are reading here. They will help you know how to make the swim training fun, when to stop, and what to teach.
Conclusion for teaching a three-year-old how to swim
It is simple: kids love playing in the water, so you should approach the swimming lessons from the angle of playing a game.
Also, kids do not hold their attention span for as long as adults do. Thus, we suggest you keep the swimming lessons short, say 10 to 15 minutes, take a break, and then proceed, or even call it a lesson.
It is paramount that you never leave your kid in the swimming pool alone. In fact, they should never be in the vicinity of the swimming pool alone.
Safety is very vital.