1. Make the most of bathtime.
Begin
by using this time as an opportunity to familiarize babies with water.
“When he’s in the bathtub, get him wet and let the water go over his
head and get into his ears,” Garcia suggests. “Having water in the ears
is a very strange feeling, and he might not like it, but you have to
keep doing it.” By age 1, kids should feel comfortable having water on
their face.
2. Enroll in a mommy-and-me swimming class.
These
programs, for kids ages 6 to 36 months, introduce swimming in a small
and comfortable setting and help toddlers develop the motor skills
needed to swim. “Parents don’t have to be swimmers to participate—the
pool is very shallow so they just need to stand in the water,” Garcia
says. During classes, parents do exercises such as positioning kids atop
the water’s surface on their tummy and slowly rolling them onto their
back, while letting them kick their feet and splash.
3. Sign up kids for lessons at age 3.
It’s
time to progress to private or group swimming lessons without parental
involvement. “If kids aren’t comfortable in water by age 4, learning how
to swim will become harder with every additional year that you wait,”
Garcia warns.
