Start with bathtub swim lessons from the day you bring your baby home from the hospital. A newborn has recently emerged from a comfy place of residence, submerged in liquid for nine months… What Is the Best Age to Start Swimming Lessons?

Maintain that level of comfort that your baby already feels around water. To do this, pour water over his head during every bath. For more details on this, take my free online course entitled, How to Prepare Your Baby for Swim Lessons 0 to 8 Months. You’ll learn how to condition your baby to hold his breath and much more. ⬇️. So

What Is the Best Age to Start Swimming Lessons in a pool?

The answer is four months of age. At 4-months-old, your baby has decent head control, and as a parent, by the time your baby is 4-months-old, you are a lot more comfortable with handling your little one on land, which transfers nicely to the pool too. So

Swimming Lessons Makes Your Baby Smarter

Babies’ earliest learning happens through their senses of touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. It’s how they experience new awareness, but only if exposed to appropriate stimuli. And what could be a better way of stimulating the sense of touch than being completely immersed in water?

All of the activities that typically make up a swim lesson arouse the senses. It can be as simple as reaching for age-appropriate toys of different colors and textures. This activity is one great way to stimulate sight and touch and even taste since the toys will most certainly make a beeline for the mouth. To learn how to teach your baby to swim yourself, enroll in this course entitled Teach Babies to Swim 4 to 8 Months.

Your Baby Will Never Develop a Fear of Water

The main goal in a parent/tot swim class is to develop a love of the water in your baby. So if you give your infant the opportunity to early water exposure, he’s going to not only love the water, but he will also respect it. So

Swim lessons provide babies with many opportunities to experiment and learn from their mistakes. They learn the difference between deep and shallow water and thereby understand their boundaries and limitations, making it less likely that they would put themselves in a dangerous situation.

The 4-Month-Old Is a Delight to Teach

Young babies are oblivious to any dangers that may be surrounding them, and it is for this reason that makes teaching a 4-month-old effortless. It is at 6 or 7 months that many babies first encounter fear.

If you are exposing your baby to water for the first time at six+ months of age, don’t worry. I have found that most of these babies are just as easy to teach as their younger counterparts, especially if they’re not handed off to strangers.

And introducing the 0 to 5-month-old to back floating is easy. It becomes an issue once babies can sit independently on land, however. They like it about as much as they like having their diapers changed, which isn’t much in case you didn’t pick up on the nuance.

To learn about introducing back floating to your infant, enroll in this course. It’s FREE. ⬇️

Instill Love and Respect, Not Fear

I implore you to develop a love of the water in your baby. Teach him to respect it, not fear it. You’re already exposing your baby to land and teaching him everything that is required to someday navigate the soil beneath him. Just as important, if not, more so, is the ability to become as independently mobile in water.

Most of my preschool-aged students who first enroll in swim lessons with me are not comfortable with putting their faces in the water. They need to get past this fear of water on the face before we can progress any further in the program. And it can take several, if not many private lessons before they’re ready to take the next step.

So, don’t let this happen to your little one. Get your baby started on the right road to love and respect for water now, and you’ll save a bundle on swim lessons in the long run. Start now by enrolling in my FREE course. What’ve you got to lose? It’s FREE! See you there!

A parent wrote to me with this question…

How do you help children feel comfortable to let go of you if all they want is to be in your arms? How Do I Make My Child More Comfortable in Water?

– Concerned parent

Whatever you do, don’t force your child to do anything they don’t want to do. Your child is more comfortable in shallow water, where they feel in control. This need to be in control applies to all ages. so How Do I Make My Child More Comfortable in Water?

When you bring your child to the pool, play with them in shallow water where they can sit, stand, and crawl. Use toys to motivate them to crawl to and distract them if needed. Toys are also a great way to encourage independence.

Why Do We Want to Encourage Independence in Our Child?

Because once your child is independently mobile in the water, the better chance they have of surviving if they were to fall into a pool accidentally. Learning Independence doesn’t mean letting your child be in the water on their own to fend for themselves. You will be there with them strictly supervising and staying within arm’s reach at all times. so

Independent Play Also Teaches Your Child to Respect the Water

Expose your child to an aquatic environment as often as you can with lots of time to explore and play in shallow water. This regular exposure teaches them to respect the water and understand the dangers that water holds. And thus, making it less likely that your child would put themselves in danger.

Get Comfy With Water on the Face

Also, use this time to get your child comfy with water on their face. You can demonstrate pouring a cup of water over your head and have fun with it. Then pour it over your child’s head and praise them with lots of cheering and clapping every time you do it. so How Do I Make My Child More Comfortable in Water?

If your child is two years or older, give them the cup and let them be the one to pour the water over their head. Watch the video for more on helping the 2-year-old overcome their fear of water. How Do I Make My Child More Comfortable in Water?

Final Thoughts

If you never expose your baby to the water, they will never know the dangers that lie within. It is highly probable that without this knowledge, your child will put themselves in danger ultimately.

So, bring your child to the pool as often as you can and encourage independent play in shallow water. Before you know it, they’ll be looking forward to those trips to the pool and ready for the next step in learning to swim.