Swimming is an Experience
Swimming is an experience! I was so excited when my son started swimming lessons - it’s basically all I could talk about. My son is learning how to swim! At the time, my son was 8 months old… was he really swimming? No… he wasn’t. He was getting experience with water and learning water safety skills such as how to float until someone could rescue him. As I shared in my previous blog about water safety skills, getting my child into the water and having a positive experience is a huge priority for us.
You may think that giving our son structured experiences in a pool with an instructor at 8 months is too young. I disagree. I wish we would have started him at 6 months old. My son’s experience with water has been one of the best investments of time and money we’ve made as parents. He has gained so many skills and confidence from “swimming lessons.” I can’t rave about it enough.
If your child currently doesn’t know how to float or how to support themselves when in the water, then you should consider getting them into a swimming experience. Now, you may think that as your child gets older that they will “learn to swim eventually.” Let me tell you, they won’t. You as the parent have to push this skill. You have to put in the work to find the right swimming experience, to invest your time in the swimming experience, and if necessary, your money into your child learning water safety skills.
I’m also referring to swimming as an experience instead of a lesson. Swimming is truly an experience for a child. If you think about a pool, then you probably can instantly smell the chlorine, see a shallow end and a deep end, see a diving board, see others in their bathing suits, and can feel the slight chill of the water as you get in. For a child, those are all new experiences. Additionally, getting into the pool either with someone they know or a swim instructor (who is a complete stranger to your child) is another new experience. A child has to trust you or the swim instructor in this new environment.
Now, think about how your body moves when swimming - it is not anything like how your body moves on dry land. You have to experience swimming in order to learn how your body moves in water. You also have to recognize your breathing patterns and how to hold your breath before going underwater and that you actually can’t breath while underwater. You also realize when you can’t touch the bottom of the pool or the side of the pool for a break - you have to put in work in order to get a break such as floating to rest or swimming to a shallower area or the edge of the pool. Those are all EXPERIENCES for a child, not a lesson. Children learn from doing and experiencing and that is how they learn how to swim safely.
At this point, you might feel some apprehension. How do I even find the swimming experience for my child? Who can I trust to give my child this experience and will I be able to handle this experience as an adult? All of those are valid questions and feelings. Finding the right experience does impact the skills you want your child to have.
Unfortunately, there are a ton of “swimming lessons” and “swim schools” available to parents. That makes it difficult to know which company or person is actually qualified to teach your child. I would recommend identifying what you want your child to get out of the swimming experience. It isn’t just “learning how to swim.” It can be water safety skills and can be dependent on your child’s age and abilities.
As an example, my husband and I enrolled our son in Infant Survival and Rescue (ISR) when he was 8 months old. The goal of enrolling him in ISR was to learn simply how to interact with water and to get a foundation for swimming in the future. After looking at all of the swimming options, we picked ISR and made the commitment to introduce our son to the water. ISR is a 1:1 experience with a highly trained instructor and the swimming program was every weekday for 6 weeks. It was a HUGE time commitment and it cost us a pretty penny too.
I recommend ISR to everyone I know because of how effective and patient our instructor is. She is simply the best instructor on this planet.
Our ISR instructor met Jason where he was at with his abilities and confidence - then she pushed him further. He rose to every single challenge she put in front of him. He experienced adversity and he was able to overcome it on his own. Yes, he did cry while in the pool. Yes, it was difficult to watch as parents. Yes, it is 100% worth it.
Jason experienced and learned more about his gross motor skills and physical capabilities such as building lung capacity and breath control to go under water, flip over, and then float. He figured out when the right time to kick and turn and he also the right time to be still and rest. Jason learned how to trust a new adult and follow her instructions in a high stakes situation.
I know there was also a direct correlation to his mental and emotional development too. Outside of the pool, he started hitting more milestones and his confidence soared. It was absolutely correlated - when he started swimming, it’s as if his development rapidly increased. My son is now 2-years-old and he has been in an ISR swim program since 8 months old. That’s over a year of positive experiences and confidence building with my son and water.
ISR isn’t a swimming lesson - it’s an experience.
For us, as Jason’s parents, we have a lot of confidence in our son when near water. We are not laid back just because Jason is capable of self-rescue if he falls into the water. We remain vigilant. I’m saying we have a high level of confidence in Jason because he is capable of so much.
Our son does not wear floaties when in the water. He floats, he rolls over to swim to us, he floats some more, and he even swims to the edge of the pool to pull himself out of the pool and jump back in. We are able to go to our local beach and play in the water together. We just recently went to a water park with water slides, deep pools, and a lazy river. Jason did amazing and it was insanely fun for our family.
Swimming truly is an experience and I’m so grateful that we invested our time, energy, and money into Jason’s positive experience with water. He has a phenomenal foundation to build on for his entire life.
