I agree that you can do a lot to build water confidence by just having safe, fun in the water with your child and explaining dangers as they can understand. Lessons for the really little kits they are often just games with mum or dad anyway. As they get older they do learn technique. if you are worried about ingraining ‘wrong’ habits then maybe read up on the course that the instructors do to learn the basics of what to teach. The courses cost about $500 (a lot cheaper than swimming lessons!) and you would be qualified to help other kids at the pool too.

I agree that every water experience helps. Teach them to kick with the legs, blow bubbles and confidence in the water. I would pop in at a swimming school just to see if they have a cheap deal on, our swimming school does frequently

I’m not sure if I’ve answered this before …. I took my daughter to two sets of swimming lessons. The first was to get her comfortable and confident in the water and the second was done through the Department of Sports and Recreation for two weeks during the summer holidays and she did learn to swim by the end of those lessons.

All water experience helps. Swimming lessons are by far the best way to teach them all about water safety and how to swim

I don’t have an answer, but was glad to read all the advice! I think I might take my 2 year old for lessons next summer!

Get in the pool, dam, whatever water way with them. Play games with them, have them enjoy the whole experience including going under water. Never let them feel or see fear. Lay them on their back, with you supporting them, to get them to float. After a week they will be confident enough to want to try things on their own with you remaining nearby. Then start teaching them to drop into the pool, turn and find the side, climb out. When they are confident with this, then progress to teaching them to kick to propel thru the water. Using noodles or kickboards will make this easier. Progression is then to teaching arm strokes etc.
Hope this helps.

Just by getting in the water with your toddler will be helping. Confidence around water is the biggest issue a lot of the time when teaching littlies to swim

Depending on the age of your toddler having fun and being around water in a safe way is the best introduction. Allowing your child to go under the water, getting them to hold onto the edge and pull themselves out of the water are the most important things. I would recommend formal swimming lessons from 3 or 4 or if you are not confident in the water yourself.

I think if your going to teach them to swim yourself you need to be confident that you can teach them the correct way to get themselves to the edge of the pool in case they fall in – this has been proven to be the number 1 thing kids need to learn to survive if they fall into a pool – having that immediate instinct to go to the edge of the pool without panicking saves their lives – I would highly recommend professional lessons and take your kids yourself so you can see what they learn and then you can reinforce that when you take them swimming.

I agree with getting some lessons to start with. Some swim schools have a holiday program where you can just take them to lessons for a couple of weeks to get the feel for it.

Roll onto their back and float is a good start. If you can float on your back you can pretty much sustain this method hopefully till help arrives.

My daughter benefited greatly from a few swimming lessons to start off with. If you do the wrong thing you can scare them out of the water for a long time.
Your best bet is to get bub familiar with water, such as very light splashing, and pouring little bits of water over their head. Another thing is getting familiar with the sides of the pool as a grabbing point so they can hold on, let go and splash against.

I think just getting them familiar with water will help. Tip little bits over their heads and make a game of it so they don’t get frightened.
Also, it is good to get them to float on their backs. Small baby steps with little babies.

Start by teaching them to paddle and kick to the side of the pool, and to get themselves out. That is the most important thing! Then start to teach them to roll on to their backs and float, and teach them to kick with ‘rocket arms’. Try to teach only one skill at a time, starting with kicking, then adding arms, then breathing. Also teach them to push off the bottom of the pool to reach the surface

Is there a specific reason you don’t want to do swimming lessons and want to teach your son yourself ? When you observe swimming lessons for kids you see they start with water kicking, floating exercises, games, splashing and confidence in water. These are things you sure can start with.

All I can say is swimming lessons, they were the best thing for my children to learn to swim. My oldest daughter, who is 12yo now swims for the state in state swimming championships. All those lessons paid off and now she loves to swim more than anything.