Does anyone have tips on how to teach your baby/toddler to swim?

I took Noah to the pool today and it turned out to be sort of fun this time to an extent, last time was just stressful.

He today just threw himself under the water and was under for a few seconds before I was able to grab him. I was a bit shocked and laughed which in turn made him laugh and think it was the most fun thing to do. So I had to put up with him trying to drown himself at every available chance. To make this less stressful for me I tried to show him to blow bubbles under the water and everytime I submersed his mouth and nose I did a countdown. He caught on rather quickly but is there more I can do? He just wants to get out of my arms and go right under but all he does is sink...

sophie has been having lessons for 18 months now and no way is she ready to swim on her own! she can swim for a metre of so under water but its a long process, id either enroll himin lessons or perhaps find a DVD or something :dunno: not much help hey!!

hi,
go to kidsalive.com.au and there is a really good tutorial on the website there, it takes you through some basic skills and water safety/awareness, it is a great site. HTH.

my DD is like that always wanting to be free of us. we started swimming lessons a few weeks ago and she isnt so interested in getting away from us. maybe lessons are a good idea for you guys too.

Thanks Aimz, will check it out ASAP.

I would love to do lessons but they are too far away at another pool and cost $10 for 30 minutes, it's just too costly. How wierd is it that someone who doesn't know how to swim wants to teach their child to swim though :lol:

DS has lessons also and like AJP's DD, no was is he ready to swim on his own.. not a chance.

One thing they teach Jesse at swimming is.. sit them on the side of the pool.. cross YOUR arms (not theirs), hold their hands and as they fall into the pool untwist your arms so that they get use to turning their body around.. so in the case they fall in, they will hopefully automatically turn around and be on the wall of the pool, if you get what i mean. Another thing they teach is monkey crawling along the side of the pool. You just hold them (in the pool against the edge) and they use their hands to crawl along the side of the pool. Other things are just learning to kick and use their arms to paddle.

But maybe you can start lessons to start to get him more water aware?

we've just started lessons, i'll come back and write what we do when i have more time... its all very basic stuff i reckon you could EASILY be doing yourself, you just have to get the idea of what to do as its a bit hard to think up yourself (i reckon anyway)...

I know $10 seems like a lot to find each week for 30 mins but in my opinion it is worth every little cent.

Water safety/ learning to swim is something I think is best left to the professionals especially if you don't know how to swim yourself. Is there an yway you could get him in for a few lessons and just see if you can budget it in? I am a very confident swimmer and can swim 40 laps no worries, however I wouldn't even attempt to teach Oliver to swim. He is doing lessons at the moment and it is a slow process but I'm seeing improvement every week.

Spring. xx

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I know $10 seems like a lot to find each week for 30 mins but in my opinion it is worth every little cent.

Water safety/ learning to swim is something I think is best left to the professionals especially if you don't know how to swim yourself. Is there an yway you could get him in for a few lessons and just see if you can budget it in? I am a very confident swimmer and can swim 40 laps no worries, however I wouldn't even attempt to teach Oliver to swim. He is doing lessons at the moment and it is a slow process but I'm seeing improvement every week.

Spring. xx

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couldnt agree more!!!
we pay around $62 a month, but it is well worth the expense!

Nina has been going to swimming lessons since she was 6 months old, and she can swim on her own for about 4 or 5 metres.
From what we've learnt at swimming lessons, which is really easy to teach, we are doing with Emily.
It's the best $10 a week I spend on Nina.

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How wierd is it that someone who doesn't know how to swim wants to teach their child to swim though

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LMS I think it's essential for a child growing up in Australia to learn water safety and swimming from an early age. Even more so if you are a non-swimmer. I think it's very responsible of you, but I would agree that lessons are a must.

I know lessons are ideal but we have $50 left over each week out of the budget for emergency and that usually goes because of an unexpected large bill. I can't wait until Feb when we are out of contract and I can change to plans that are not money suckers!

I don't think DP would give that $10 a week either, he's such a tight ass :(

I'm probably going to sound fanatical (and I probably am, we are already looking at swimming lessons for our three month old!) but do you think there is any chance you could persuade DH? Maybe you could say that even though money is tight, $10 a week isn't much to pay for a skill that could one day save your son's life?