Why Should My Child Take Swimming Lessons? And What Do They Need To Know?
Swimming
Having a swimming pool in your own backyard is a boon. If you’ve got a big enough yard, you can have one of the best pools around. If your yard isn’t that big, you can even opt for a compact fibreglass pool, and you will enjoy many hours of fun, entertainment, and relaxation. Still, a pool at your residence does bring some inherent risks. An essential life skill that every child on the planet should have, is to know how to be safe in the water. Learning how to swim is the only way to do this.
Reasons to Learn Swimming
A leading cause of accidental death in children today is death by drowning. Numerous people spend their leisure time around water, either at a beach or a pool, so it’s likely that children are curious about what water is. In case children cannot swim, this can be dangerous. Swimming lessons are fun for kids and crucial to their future care in water-based activities. Not only that, regular swimming improves flexibility and strength, enhances stamina, boosts balance, and regulates posture.
Enduring Exercise
With the advent of technology taking over our lives, kids are spending more and more of their spare time on devices such as smartphones and tablets. As a result, they aren’t getting any form of natural exercise – they don’t even play outside anymore. Consequently, childhood obesity is a serious issue for many developed nations. Swimming in fibreglass pools is a great way to ensure that kids get their daily dose of exercise. It’s one of the best forms of cardiovascular exercise and works on the whole body. Besides, this is an inclusive sport that anyone can undertake, and age is no bar.
Mental Energy
When younger children partake in swimming lessons, they learn through play, songs, and games. While they are learning a novel skill, they enjoy the water and interact with peers. Social skills are developed in this way, and confidence is naturally created, building self-esteem gradually. As swimming makes the use of bilateral movements and cross patterned motions of the body. Both sides of the body move together to reach the goal of appropriate swimming strokes. This kind of bodily function promotes growth of neurons in the brain. The neural connections in the brain aid in the development of cognitive functioning. This has to do with communication, spatial learning, literacy skills in math, verbal reasoning ability and so on.
Eye-Hand Coordination and Kinesthetic Sense
Experts claim that swimming promotes the growth of musculature in the body, helping toddlers make their muscles robust. As a result, they can move their legs faster and with great agility when they learn to walk. Children who learn to swim in fibreglass pools naturally develop a great ability for eye-hand coordination and gross motor skills to achieve other tasks.
Safety in the Water
Besides teaching a child how to swim, an important role that swimming lessons play is the vital way of teaching them to be safe in water. Children become familiar with the dangerous things that water may bring with it, learning about safe practices when they are in water.
Sleep
Swimming ensures good sleeping habits in children and induces them to sleep well always. As swimming tends to burn a great deal of energy, creating biochemical changes in the mechanism of the brain, restful sleep is achieved. Swimming, by its motion, stretches the body and regulates patterns of breathing. This adds to an idyllic state of sleep in children.
What Children should Know
Given the benefits of swimming, it is good to have fibreglass pool swimming lessons as soon as they are of age. The primary aim of lessons is to let them know how to be safe in the water. Knowing how to swim is an essential skill that can prevent drowning or help to save someone else from drowning. According to a child’s age, he or she will learn a range of sets of skills. You can expect the following skills to be taught in swimming classes:
- Your child will learn how to breathe with respect to being in water. This includes learning how to hold their breath.
- Your child will learn how to close their eyes in water.
- Your child will learn how to float and roll.
- Your child will master the swim float swim method. This is a skill that is taught later as your child becomes more adept.
- Your child will learn how to kick appropriately.
- Your child will learn to rest and breathe while they are floating on the water.
- With familiarity, they will learn swimming techniques and how to glide through water at an advanced stage.
- They will learn how to reach the edge of the water in a safe manner.
All children should learn how to get to the surface of the water when swimming underwater. They must also learn to get into water in a safe way and get out properly.
When to Start
There isn’t a perfect or the best time to learn to swim. Fibreglass pools are great for swimming in and learning the tools of the trade. Many parents choose to place their children in swimming coaching lessons at an early age, as they think that they will learn faster. This may be a good thing, but it’s really all about getting them to be familiar in the water rather than learning any swimming skills. As early as six months, children take to the water quite naturally and lose the fear of water soon. They need to feel comfortable before really learning the techniques of swimming.
In case you have very young children at home, and they are just about learning how to swim, it is important to get appropriate pool fencing done. This is to avoid any unforeseen accidents that may occur before your child has learned how to handle being in the water. Kids must be supervised at all times, when near a pool or in it. It is important to note that children develop differently from each other. While one child may be prepared to start swimming lessons, another may not. Children should never be forced, but gently cajoled to go into the water, otherwise, they may be averse to it for a long time to come.
