With any sport it is beneficial to practice your skills outside of your regular practices. Swimming is certainly one of those sports. In my past few years as a swim teacher I learned ways that you can turn the skills from your child’s swim class into games. Games are perfect for practicing swim skills at the pool because your child gets the benefit of retaining what they learn in swim lessons and have fun doing it. Here are 3 games that you can play with your child to help develop their swim skills.
Underwater Fish Talk
This game is perfect for your younger ones to practice blowing bubbles in the water. To start, have your child pretend they are blowing out a birthday candle with their lips in the water and make bubbles. Then after a couple times of practice have them go underwater to blow their bubbles, wherein you will tell them to talk to the fish underwater. Once your child comes up for a breath, have your child tell you what the fishes said. To add some more fun to it, if you have a toy fish then have your child pretend to have a conversation with said toy.
Pancake Flip
This game can help your child to develop their front and back floats. To play, have your child get onto their back or front where their arms are out to the side and their feet are in front of them apart, a lot like a starfish. Then sing the Pancake Song which goes as follows: “I’m a little pancake on my back, flip me over just like that”. After the last part of the song, help flip your child over onto their belly or back depending on which float they started with. Sing the song a couple times, giving your child the opportunity to practice both floats multiple times.
Superhero Glide
This game will help with the front glide or otherwise known as the streamline position. For this game have your child hang onto the side of the pool, then pick what superhero they want to be. From there, have your child push off the wall in a streamline position, with their arms out in front, making sure they squeeze their arms by their ears to get the correct position. After that, have them see how far they can go by pushing off the wall. To add some challenge use a hula hoop and have your child float through it. At first with this game they should not kick their feet, but as they make it through the hoop each time, take it further and further out. Then when the hoop is out far enough to where they need to kick, then at that point you can tell them to start kicking with their glide.
These games are surely going to provide some fun while your children practice their swim skills! Swimming is fun and can be useful for any child for the rest of their lives. Plus the more they practice the more fun the pool can be!
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