by Erika Peres
Not sure how to keep your children entertained in the pool?
Want to gently encourage your child who is afraid to get into the pool?
Try these fun yet simple games.
These games will help you enjoy being in the pool with your children and get them excited about being in the water. What they also do is to encourage children to get comfortable in the water and work on their swimming techniques without it being a “lesson”.
Water Your Body
Bring along containers. It can be plastic cups or mugs. Ensure these containers are small and light so children can easily handle them. In the swimming pool, fill the container with water and pour it on each other.
Young children can be taught to describe what they are doing. You can say things like “water on your face”, “water on your shoulder”, “water on your feet” and many more.
This exercise is not only fun but also gives opportunity for children to get comfortable with having water on their faces and other parts of body. It will also help them acclimatize to the pool water temperature.
Sinking Toy
Many stores sell these toys. Alternatively, you can always improvise with everyday household objects. Try big coins or toys cars. Anything that is large, heavy and sinks in the water.
Drop these toys into the deep end of the swimming pool and get your kids to find and pick them up.
This exercise will ensure that they swim down to the very bottom of the pool thus helping a lot in developing their kicks in the process. They would also learn to dive in and come up to the surface while honing their senses. This is also a great game for teaching kids to hold their breath underwater for an extended period of time.
Daddy Shark and Mummy Shark
The third and the last game in this list would possibly be the favourite of your children, especially if they are into the baby shark song. I fondly call this game as daddy and/or mummy shark versus the fishes.
In this game the fishes a.k.a. the children will swim from point A to point B, while the shark a.k.a the adult, will be in the middle waiting to catch these fishes.
The condition is that the shark can only catch the fishes underwater. So to avoid being caught, these fishes have to be very fast swimmers.
This game will help develop faster kicking skills in children. Continuous practice will see an increase in their speed too. Not to mention the fact that this is a very funny game that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
Try these games when you take your children to the pool next time and discover just how much fun the whole family can have in the pool.
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Erika Peres a Swimming instructor with over 15 years of coaching experiences. She swims with babies, toddlers and older children. She attends many International School as well as home visits around Desa Park City, Mont Kiara and Bangsar.
For more information and swimming tips, please message Erika at +60126176372 or visit www.epsacademy.com.my.
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