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By all means, sign your child up for swimming lessons! I think three is a great time for kids to learn how to swim if they're showing signs of readiness as it appears your daughter is doing.
I think it is so funny that I came across this post which reinforces something i saw this weekend:
I was at a pool with my friend and their aunt brought over her 2 year old. The daughter didnt like wearing floaties or being a raft but really liked sitting on the step and being held in the pool. The mother started explaining how she's "teaching her to hold her breath" now. And she took her and bounced her up and down a little said "1-2-3" and dunked her under(just for a second). She came up looking confused but never once cried or even coughed. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen! I guess they had been doing it a few times and she seems to respond to it.
I think it is so funny that I came across this post which reinforces something i saw this weekend:
I was at a pool with my friend and their aunt brought over her 2 year old. The daughter didnt like wearing floaties or being a raft but really liked sitting on the step and being held in the pool. The mother started explaining how she's "teaching her to hold her breath" now. And she took her and bounced her up and down a little said "1-2-3" and dunked her under(just for a second). She came up looking confused but never once cried or even coughed. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen! I guess they had been doing it a few times and she seems to respond to it.
The babies of all animals know how to swim, Giraffe, kangaroo, mouse, anything. Take a baby kitten, eyes still closed, toss it in a pond, it will swim. Who taught your dog to swim?
Humans are taught fear of things it is unnatural to be afraid of, and so humans panic when they go into the water. We also put clothing on humans, which retards the capacity to swim, so we have plenty of anecdotal reports of people drowning.
Because of their fear of water, older human children will not enjoy the experience of being thrown into the water, and will probably carry a lingering resentment to anyone who inflicts that upon them, so it is better to put them in the water at a very early age. Like, the day their umbilical cord heals. If a baby learns, at the age of a few days, that the water is a natural environment that they are preprogrammed to survive and even flourish in, you will never need to teach the child to swim. He already knows, just don't let him forget or become fearful.
Pacific islanders, who live with proximity and dependence on their lagoons, put their babies in the water within a couple of weeks of birth, and just let them bob around on their own. The lagoon makes a great baby sitter---the baby can't get into any trouble or danger until it gets ashore.
I totally agree (First time for everything)
Love the story.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ohiogirl22
I was at a pool with my friend and their aunt brought over her 2 year old. The daughter didnt like wearing floaties or being a raft but really liked sitting on the step and being held in the pool. The mother started explaining how she's "teaching her to hold her breath" now. And she took her and bounced her up and down a little said "1-2-3" and dunked her under(just for a second). She came up looking confused but never once cried or even coughed. It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen! I guess they had been doing it a few times and she seems to respond to it.
That's a technique the Y used years ago with very small babies. Very small babies are taught to go under like that as they are taught to turn and reach for the edge. For graduation they were tossed off a starting block into 4 1/2 feet of water. Moms fished them out.
I think they're better off learning on their own by being put into gradually deeper and deeper water until it's over their heads.
Love the story.
That's a technique the Y used years ago with very small babies. Very small babies are taught to go under like that as they are taught to turn and reach for the edge. For graduation they were tossed off a starting block into 4 1/2 feet of water. Moms fished them out.
I think they're better off learning on their own by being put into gradually deeper and deeper water until it's over their heads.
Our 3 kids were all in swim lessons by 6 months. They were taught by dunking and grabbing for the edge or bar. At first I was skeptical and it is a little scary to watch you baby go under water. All I can say is it made all my kids able to float on there back by 18 months and swim by 2.
We owned a pool so it was important to us that they learn as early as possible in case something happened. An on occasion one would jump in without us looking and would immediatly turn on their back.
To each his own but I am a firm believer in this method.
I absolutely HATE arm floaties. Kids can get way too dependent on them. When kids first floats are those arm wings, they get used to being vertical in the water. So when they go to swim lessons and try to learn how to be horizontal in the water they fight it. They also can come off when kids jump into the water. They raise their arms and slip they can come off.
On a slightly different topic, put your kids in swim lessons as early as possible. But please remember the swim teachers are not miracle workers.
I agree, and you make an important point here. Some kids are more afraid of the water than others. My dunk-the-kid-till-she-learns-to-hold-her-breath method wouldn't be a good idea to use on a child who was fearful. That would be awful. My kid had no fear, which was causing the problem.
I agree, some kids are either afraid or not. I relate to this so much. I love how my kid wants to learn different tricks in the pool, but I am not very knowledgeable myself.
it's never too early to learn to swim. Growing up in CA, I was competing on swim teams by the time I was 5 and played waterpolo as well when I was older. My own kids, I started taking them in the water at 2-3 months old. I would hold them and blow in their face (it forces them to take a breath) and then dunk them under. They would come up just fine. They could both swim back and forth the length of the pool by themselves by the time they were 3. I never used any type of floaties or anything. The arm floaties are also not good to use. If anything, only use a life jacket. No cutsie other stuff.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Start earlier the better.
Learning to float, front and back,
Doing 'bobs' to get use to taking breaths, then turning head and doing bobs (at edge of pool)
I felt pretty foolish doing this at age 25, but my parents made sure we were deathly afraid of water, since we had an irrigation canal with a 10' dia syphon tube under a river (Deadly undertow).
So... I was late to the party, but now swim laps 1mile / day for 40+ yrs
Started our kids early, moved to Singapore when they were age 5.
They were swimming the length of the pool in 3 days.
Practice makes perfect.
Spend an immense amount of time in the water, take your kids to resort hotels with water parks and let your spouse rest. (while enjoying room service).
Travel and overnight at hot springs pools. Take midday driving breaks at community pools/
More Time in the water!
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(First time for everything
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