Taking children swimming

bestpud

sophie131 wrote: »

Are Kelloggs still putting the free vouchers on their cereal? Totally didn't realise they were doing it!!!

Yes they are. Well, we've got them on ours this week anyway!

bestpud

ailuro2 wrote: »

don't ask why, but we invented a game called Santa's reindeers. It must have been approaching Christmas.

We would straddle one of those noodle/woggle/long tube floats with it in a U shape, then swim from country to country delivering present. We could choose our reindeer names, and when we got to Australia we'd find another imaginary present that had to go back up north to Scotland, the width of the pool would be America across to somewhere in Europe. You get the idea. She would happily play this for an hour if I let her, but it was good exercise for me too.

Dolphin rides are a good way to show them it's easy and fun to swim underwater (you swim underwater with child sitting on your back) which for us progressed to baby dolphin holding onto mummy's flipper and swimming.

I know they sound silly, but this is what we did.

Now DD is 9 and has had a few years of lessons I really have to work hard to win a swimming race with her.:o

I love the reindeer idea! Will definitely try that one - maybe with a less xmassy theme.

I am not too good at swimming myself and would not go under water but the dolphin one is something she could do with DH.

bestpud

Carmina_Piranha wrote: »

i think the sausage thing is called a woggle.

i'm the same - husband is much more fun at the pool. i let my 2 year old jump in and i catch him. i also have a race with him to the other side. he gives me a ride if he is able to touch the floor of the pool (it's a moveable floor so sometimes it's a metre, but when it's 86cm he can walk on the floor). i hold onto his waist and i kick my legs while he walks through the water, thinking he is carrying me.

we take a squirty bath toy and that provides a few minutes of amusement if i squirt the water high into the air, it's like a sprinkler for him to avoid.

our old pool used to have steps into the water, so he used to commando crawl along those but the new pool doesn't, so he's a bit bored because it's just a pool. we just went on holiday and the pool had a little slide which he really loved, and it's made me think that rather than take him swimming once a week in the council pool for £4 it would be better to save up and take him to a pool with slides, rapids, sprinklers etc. every 3 weeks.

if we go to the council pool we get out within an hour, but at a play pool we can stay in for more than 3 hours and amid all the sliding etc. they pick up how to swim anyhow, just during their games in the wave pool etc.

in the council pool my eldest is less bored if he has goggles because then he can swim underwater or do handstands, or dive for the locker key.

I think I will get a woggle. I've used them in aqua aerobics classes and imagine they could be fun for dd - hadn't thought about getting her one before now though.

We don't have any fun pools around us unfortunately.

bestpud

craftyfox wrote: »

he still won't put his face in the water but i don't care because he can now swim and that is all that i wanted so when the school goes back to the pool he won't be left out :T

The problem with this is they (here anyway) won't leave them alone if they don't put their face in the water.

If they would just stop pestering her, I think she'd be better off, but they keep saying she has to put her face in to swim properly. I asked them to lay off and suggested it is perhaps better for her to swim improperly for now than to be put if swimming altogether, but it didn't have much effect - they lay off for a week and then went back to pestering her!

bestpud

Edinburghlass wrote: »

This reminded me of my daughter and swimming lessons, she hated putting her head under the water and things came to head one day at a swimming lesson when the teacher insisted she had to do it while my daughter bawled her heart out and shivered with the cold.

I took her out of the water and the class much to the disapproval of the head teacher and then took her and her friend (who was similarly frightened) to the public baths that afternoon and got them both to just try. They did and from that moment on the two of them loved swimming under water, you would never have known they had ever had a problem but I never forgave the teacher for trying to force her in the way she did. Especially as those particular classes weren't cheap!

That's what worries me about lessons.

Hopefully we can get her doing it if we start going regularly and don't pressure her. Glad it worked for your dd.

prettypennies

My DS are like little fish in the water so generally entertain themselves.
I have taken them since they were babies and they have devloped their own swimming style!
When we went to Spain when they were 5, DS2 was swimming across the pool. He had this habit of taking a 'breather' with his head face down in the water, then he would carry on. This poor Spanish guy thought he was drowning and dived in to fish him out!
They like to retrieve stuff from the bottom of the pool (the pressure really hurts my ears, but doesn't seem to bother them!)

We play lots of chasing games in the water. One we used to play in the little pool was 'dead squid' I float face down in the pool and they come up and prod me or swim under me. Then when they are least expecting it, I grab one of them.

We also play rock paper scissors. The loser gets a 3 second splashing (googles required!)

I also used to play a game where they are the boat and I am the sea. I hold them and tell a story about a little boat bobbing on the water in the sunshine (bob them about gently) then gradually the wind starts to blow, waves get bigger, rock them about more and so on until the boat sinks!

hm71_2

I have a dd like that! my DS and DD2 were just chucked in as babies and have always just swam- they have a very annoying habit of being able to stay under water for a long time with their eyes open on more than one occassion they have freaked out other pool users who think they are dead on the bottom. unfortunatle DD1 swims like a brick- she has had lessons, every member of the family has tried with her but she just hates the idea of swimming- she won't get her face wet or her hair! but she has just finished school and our local leisure centres are running a 50p swimming day so we have been going and she nearly managed a whole length last time - she doesn't do what I'd call traditional strokes but she swims of a sort, its taken 16yrs but we've got there.

listerofsmeg_2

what about getting some goggles on you both and pretending to be mermaids underwater?

jay11_2

My DS was like this, we finally found a sympathetic teacher, but he was still so cold and nervous that gave up and I started taking him myself (amid much fuss), on the basis that he felt safe with me, which was a start. Decided to bite the bullet and take him once a week, every week, to at least get used to it. I insisted on at least half an hour in the water. We took a friend (+ mum) along whenever possible and he eventually began to enjoy the water and relax enough to let me teach him doggy paddle. I think it took between 6 months and a year of sheer bloody mindedness on my part, but once he got used to it, relaxed, and learnt to stay afloat, he was off and has never looked back. I think he just needed to 'master' the water to feel safe. DD (18 mths younger) is a real water baby, so I had one wanting out, one refusing to get out, lol. This was a while ago before the rules on child/parent ratio were tightened up.

R.e. the cost, can you get a student discount, I only pay child prices with my NUS card, so me + 1 is just over £4.

bestpud

Thanks again everyone! We've been taking her once a week and it is amazing how far she has come!

She is fine getting her face in now and is starting to actually go under too iyswim?

She will happily go across the pool with a float and last week we started her with a woggle, so she can use her arms as well.

I've shown her how to tread water too and she is learning that it is no massive deal if she goes under unexpectedly.

We are showing her the strokes, and how not to drown, in the hope she will then have more confidence to swim further without an aid.

We're getting there basically, and she loves it, which is the main thing imo.

Jay11 - we have to have the council tax exemption to get a student discount here and I am only part time now. We go to a pool in one of the smaller towns around us though, which is cheaper and much better than the main one here!