Aqua Tots

I am like a rock .. truly I am.  All three of mine are in swim classes and their daddy is a fish.  I make a point of not trying to teach tehm anything in the water as I have a real phobia about putting my face in teh water (not fear of the water more like a claustrophobia).  The girls are doing wonderfully well in class and with my praise I readily admit I can't swim well and am so proud they are doing much better than mummy.

Now i can barely swim. i know its terrible. i can doggy paddle and a bit a a variation on breaststroke. i dont swim if i cant see the bottom, as i generally get disorientated under water and ram my head into the ground a few times trying to get up for air.  having said that we cant afford swimming lessons but there is no way i want my son to be like that.  so we take him in our beautiful and clean pool and are teaching him ourself. my husband has a current senior first aid certificate and i have an expired one, so it is safe enough for us to do this. we simply just move around a little in the shallow end holding him and show him how to blow bubbles. then one of us will do a few laps (trying to get in shape at the same time) and he will try and take off kicking after the other parent!  i know, my fualt he licks the water for showing him to blow bubbles, but at these learn to swim classes what is the first thing they teach young kids? kicking and bubble blowing. we never let go of him or take him in the deep end, but we do encourage him to do things that we are doing in there. as a result i am aslo becoming more conifdent in the water.

I think learning how to swim is very important. My daughter was in the infant learn to swim classes. The most beneficial swim classes she had were this summer at the age of 2 in a half. It was red cross private lessons at the instructor's own pool. It is a little cheaper that way. She was one on one with instructor. I found that she learned more over the summer than the infant ones. She loved it! I agree that the infant classes are a good bonding experience with your child. But i don't think that the ones she took as an infant benefitted her ability to swim. My twin boys have not had the opportunity to learn how to swim as a young infant. They have been exposed to pools through us. Next summer, they will have the private lessons like their sister but at the age of just over 2 years old.

i will defiently be thinking about that. me, I don't swim, so i couldn't exactly do the swimming lesson's with her. whenever her daddy come's home, i think he'll do it. he's a good swimmer(so i think lol) i will really have to check into it too. just to see at what age they start swimming lessons for babies up here in calgary. and i'm sure she'll love it once she's in the water(since she love's to take baths!!)