How to Teach Swim Lessons to a 4 Year Old: 8 Powerful Tips for A Great Experience
As a parent, it is in your best interest to know how to teach a 4 year old to swim. You see, they will not only enjoy the awesome healthy benefits of swimming, but this is also a very engaging sport.
It can help with their social skills, because it is hardly a solitary activity. The physical and mental benefits of swimming are too many to ignore.
In fact, we suggest if you have a toddler, don’t let them get to four years before they know how to swim. 2 years is more like it.
Having said that, teaching a 4-year-old to swim can be a daunting task for parents. To make the process easier, we have put together ten actionable tips to help your child learn how to swim fast.
1. Start with water familiarization
Before teaching your child how to swim, start by getting them familiar with the water. Let them play in the shallow end of the pool or take them to the beach. This will help them overcome their fear of water.
Remember to keep your children supervised. You should also use whatever pool safety for toddlers are at your disposal.
Toddlers swallow pool water easily. You need to stay around and prevent this from happening. Pool water can give them tummy ache and diarrhea.
If your child fears water, start by increasing the amount of water you use to bathe them in the bathtub. Once they get used to the buoyancy of the water, the fear starts to disappear.
You can also swim with your toddler in the shallow end of the swimming pool.
2. Use flotation devices to teach kids how to swim
Using the best age-appropriate swimming flotation devices like vests or arm floats can boost the confidence and courage of your child in the water.
That enables them to learn how to swim fast. Besides, learning how to float in water is one of the main pillars of swimming.
When the child learns how to float, he or she will be able to learn other swimming techniques. While at it, wearing the right flotation devices can also help the child to learn how to tread water easily.
3. Teach the child the basic breathing techniques
Teach your child how to hold their breath and blow bubbles in the water. This will help them feel comfortable putting their face in the water.
Once they are comfortable with keeping their head in the water for a few seconds, it is time to get them to learn how to keep the head underwater without holding the nose.
This is not a really mean feat. Once the child is able to keep their head and face in the water for a few seconds, you can progress to the next phase of the training.
4. Practice kicking and arm movements
Kicking is a vital skill especially because it is used in each of the 5 basic swimming techniques. To move in the water you must kick.
To get started on this, have your child hold onto the edge of the pool and kick their legs. Once they are comfortable, have them try kicking while holding onto a kick board.
Start to teach your child arm movements only when they are comfortable with kicking. By this time, they are able to let go of the rails and float. Remember, you have already taught them how to use flotation devices.
At first, the arm movements will be super awkward, but soon, they will learn how to do them just right. You can gradually progress to more advanced strokes with time.
5. Get them to float without the flotation devices
To repeat, floating in water is a very important skill. And now, you can get started on it so that they can learn how to float on the back without using the personal flotation devices.
But why is learning to float without a life jacket for swimming so vital? Imagine being abandoned in the water and required to keep afloat. If you are in the ocean, all the energy will be gone in no time at all.
Knowing how to float helps in the conservation of energy. Even when swimming in the pool, the toddler needs to rest.
One way of resting is to float on the water without sinking. Floating requires less energy than swimming.
Floating is a vital skill for swimming for survival.
To teach your young one how to float, hold him or her under the back, until they learn to relax.
6. Practice how to swim regularly
Children learn how to swim fast. Children also forget fast because their mind is preoccupied with so many things.
Thus, once you start teaching him or her how to learn, make it a daily thing or at least a 5-times-a-week-thing, until they become little pros.
This applies to you too. Are you learning how to swim by yourself? The more consistent you are the faster you will learn.
You could start by short, daily sessions for about 5 days a week. With time, you can increase the duration of the sessions.
In fact, even for other people, swimming longer sessions helps them to see better results of swimming three times a week.
7. Teach the toddler swimming safety skills
Actually, safety skills in the pool should come earlier. First, teach the child the importance of now swallowing water in the pool.
If they drink the swimming pool water, they should spit it out immediately. One of the ways of swimming water getting inside you is by swallowing it.
The second thing is to teach them how to know when they are tired to continue swimming. They should know when it is time to go back to the edge of the pool. This can prevent drowning incidents in the water.
Teach them the importance of floating on their back when they feel too tired because it helps them to breathe properly in the water.
8. Teach the child how to jump in the pool
Once your child has become skilled in swimming, you need to teach them about jumping in the pool. Of course, you have to consider the safest pool depth for jumping.
Also, they should never be allowed to jump in the pool alone. Always supervise them because this can be dangerous.
Children love to jump. However, you should teach them how to do it safely, which means jumping legs first instead of face first.
Also teach them how to swim to the edge of the swimming, when to avoid jumping, for instance, when the public safety pool is crowded.
How to teach swimming to 5 year old
Teaching a five year old how to swim is not any different from teaching a four year old. Just follow the simple guide outlined below:
Get them the right swimming gear
This is very important. Get your five year old girl a nice, colorful swim suit for girls that will be visible from a distance. For boys, get them a pair of swimming trunks or board shorts. They can swim bare-chested.
Also, get them personal flotation devices. Those are very important. They will boost the confidence of your baby in water.
Having the right swimming attire even for adults helps you to swim faster and longer. Swimming in home clothes is not recommended because they get waterlogged and they can introduce new bacteria to the pool water.
Make swimming fun and games
If it is all fun and games, the five year old will love it a lot. At this age, kids have a lot of energy and they love playing.
Also, they do not fear water and if yours does, it is simple to make them overcome it when you make swimming feel like a game.
Introduce swimming toys for toddlers into the water, so that they can swim after them. Inflated tubes can also make swimming more fun as would hula hoops, and other types of floaties.
The idea is to help the toddlers learn fast and swim longer and harder each day. If you do this consistently, they will be swimming like fish in a few weeks.
Use woggles to teach them how to swim freely
A woggle is a type of foam noodle that is used in swimming pools to train kids how to swim. It comes in florescent colors so it is visible in the water, even from a distance.
Woggles are best for swimming, when you do not want something that sticks to one position such as arm flotation bands or the inflatable swim floaties.
As the name suggests, they woggle, meaning they move in the water. This encourages the child to move and find a way to hold their end of the bargain in the water.
Woggles can also help the kids build their confidence in the water because of their flexibility. It is as if the kid will be fighting to keep a grip on the woggle and at the same time, keeping their balance in the water.
Teach them how to get out of the pool
Getting in and out of the pool are very important. Falling and slipping accidents are also more likely to happen when a child is getting in and out of the swimming pool.
Exiting the swimming pool can be done using the wall and the bar and it can be done using the ladder steps. Your child needs to learn how to get out in both ways, safely and independently.
To use the ladder, encourage the child to hold onto the rails firmly. Remember, the rails are smooth and their hands are wet, so slipping can occur.
With both hands firmly on the rails get the kid to step with both feet on the bottom step of the ladder, and then take the steps one at a time.
They should never climb out of the swimming pool when facing the water. They should always face the ladder.
To climb out on the bar and wall, encourage them to swim to the edge of the pool slowly. Once they get to the wall, they should turn so they are facing the water.
They should hoist themselves this way while holding onto the bar, until they are sitting on the swimming pool edge.
Climbing out directly on the wall can be hard for smaller toddlers, so you should help them, by bending your leg under them so they can step on it. You will need to do this until they are able to climb out safely and independently.
Teaching a 5 year old how to get in the pool
Teach kids who are two, three, four or five year old how to get in the pool and stay by their side all the time, until they can do it on their own, safely.
The first and the simplest technique is to sit with the child on the edge of the pool facing the water with your feet dangling in the pool.
You can then turn around as you slip into the water such that you are facing the child while you are in the water. The idea behind this is to prevent the child from being in the water first, any time.
Encourage the child to turn and slip into the water while facing outside the pool. They can hold onto the swimming pool bar and enter the water slowly. Stand by closely so they feel your presence but you do it on your own.
While using the ladder, the child should enter the pool with their back to the water. They should start by standing with both feet on the top step, firmly holding the handrails. They should then take one step at a time, moving one leg, followed by the other leg.
Conclusion
Teaching a 4 year old to swim is not too hard because at this age, they can learn fast. They are also not going to forget the things they learn easily.
If you are teaching the child in a private swimming pool, do not leave them unsupervised. If you are teaching them in a public pool, adhere to the swimming pool safety regulations.
Also, remember to warn them against peeing in the swimming pool. If they need a toilet break, they should say. Make a habit of having them use the toilet before they can get into the water.
Finally, we cannot overemphasize the importance of regular swimming sessions and lessons. The more often they can swim, the faster they will master the skill.
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