It is important to have multiple lessons at FINS over the summer to build your child’s skills. It is also crucial to work on swimming skills outside of lessons in order to increase your child’s familiarity and comfort in the water. Taking the time to work with your child on swimming skills will be beneficial to your child’s improvement and confidence with swimming, easing their experience during swim lessons at FINS. Read more about various benefits and ways in which you can work with your child on their skills outside of swim lessons:
Talk to the instructor after lessons. After your child’s lesson, make sure to spend a few minutes speaking with their instructor about skills that were worked on each time. Be sure to pay close attention to the skills that need improvement or that your child struggled with. This way, you have a sense of where your child’s skills lie and it can help you to continue working on them outside of lessons.
Go to the pool often. It is important to spend time at the pool outside of FINS, to increase your child’s comfortability in the water. Trying to spend time between lessons at the pool or a body of water is essential. This will help limit meltdowns and help with building skills rather than reteaching each lesson.
Spend time in the water with your child. When spending time at the pool between or after lessons, try to be in the water with your child. It is helpful for the parent to work with their child on the skills, and it will help the child become more comfortable. Interacting with them one-on-one will help the skills learned at FINS to stick better and transfer to the next lesson. For example, help them float on their back so that during the next lesson their instructor can review this skill and then advance to teaching your child more challenging skills.
Encourage your child. It is important to encourage your child in and out of the water. Kids who are still getting comfortable in the water need reassurance that they did a good job during their lesson and reminders of the skills they worked on. Giving your child affirmations before and after swim lessons will benefit them during swim lessons.
Push your child. Do not be afraid to try new skills with your child. If he or she is mastering the skills learned at FINS and is improving while swimming with you, it can be beneficial to try a new skill as it can help them to sharpen their skills and become more confident in the water. For example, if your child usually swims with floaties but you notice that they are more confident in the water and have gained new skills, you can try taking the floaties off and seeing how they swim. Although it may be a new challenge for your child, pushing them in a safe and effective way is always helpful for your swimmer.
Each of these points will help you and your child become more confident about swimming! Spending even just a few extra minutes at the pool working with your child on skills will help them. With a combination of both FINS swim lessons and working with your child on your own, your child will build the skills needed to become a strong swimmer!
