Learn to Swim

After three months of age they reckon it's OK to start taking your kids to the pool, so given that both Mummy and Daddy like swimming (as does G in her bath) we thought we'd give her a try at the local pool.

The first time in she seemed to really enjoy it. I also looked, but they didn't seem to have any sort of water familiarisation classes for babies under 1 year of age so did some research on the internet.

I found this site, with a program by Laurie Lawrence (yes... that very loud swimming coach) on how to prepare your baby for swimming and water safety. At this stage, it's mainly developing her ability to hold her breath in preparation for submersion. So what we are doing is sitting her up in her bath, getting her attention by saying 'Genevieve, ready... go...' and then tipping a cup of water over her face. She's really picked it up well. We can do it three or four times in a row now and she knows exactly what's coming. She closes her eyes and holds her breath when you say the preparation words. Click on the picture to go to the site for more detail.

We're hoping that once she gets a little bit older that this will encourage her to enjoy the water and learn how to swim from an early age, which is a good thing. I wonder how old she needs to be before she can start surfing...?