Swim lessons, the greatest gift a child could receive.

What a joy it is to see a child’s smiling face come up out of the water after he has touched the bottom of the “deep” part of the pool for the first time!
How rewarding it is to see the expression of excitement when that child can first swim a length of the pool without help.
Many talk about boosting children’s self-esteem, but I know of no better way than helping that child successfully master a skill, such as learning to swim.
What is the best gift you can give a child? So many toys break quickly, or the box is more interesting than the toy. Giving a child swimming lessons is a gift that will not only last a lifetime, but also may save his life.
Many drownings are preventable. Often, a poor swimmer takes a dare and finds he is in “over his head” in more ways than one. A little safety information and some basic swimming instruction can give a child the knowledge he needs to make wise choices in and around the water.
Of course, learning to swim teaches so much more than swimming technique. In the parent/child class, children 6 months to 3 years of age bond with their parents while singing songs and becoming adjusted to the water. A few short years down the road, some of these tots have learned all four competitive strokes and honed their swimming skills enough to join the swim team.
Toddlers as young as 3 can take lessons on their own and learn valuable life skills such as waiting their turn, listening to the teacher, trying everything while having fun and showing the self-control to walk instead of running on the deck. Wouldn’t the world be a different place if these skills were learned by all children before they went to school?
Little by little and bit by bit a hesitant child learns to blow bubbles, to put her face in the water, to float with assistance and finally, to float on her own. Before long, she is mastering a swimming stroke or two and learning to swim a distance with just a little bit of help from her instructor.Seeing this progression and the skill development over and over during the past couple of decades has kept teaching swimming lessons fresh and rewarding for me. As the child progresses into the deeper water, she might be more hesitant and clingy, but once trust is built that her instructor will always be there for her, she makes amazing progress.