Emma’s Swimming Tips – Part 2: Building Confidence
24 April 2020
Another thing to practice is getting children confident with having water over their faces and their heads. Some ideas you can use in the bath are:
- Pouring water over different body parts. Playing a game such as Simon Says (or Mummy Says/Daddy Says/Big Sister says…) brings an element of fun to it – “Simon Says pour water on your toes”, “…pour water on your tummy”, “…pour water on your ears”, you get the idea! Once they’re happy pouring water over the body parts, you can progress to pouring water over their hair and face.
- Pouring water over their heads. Make sure you let your child know that you are going to pour water and pour water over their head so that it runs over their face. See below for tips!
- Putting different parts of their face in the water. Again why not use Simon Says… “Simon Says put your chin in the water”, “…put one cheek in the water”, “…put your forehead in the water” (we often find that children will have a go at putting their forehead in the water even if they don’t like putting their eyes in the water and sometimes will get their eyes in the water too! Bonus!)
- Putting toys in the water or even real coins (they sink!) and have them put their face in to collect them. Why not bring some additional learning in and they need to pick out certain coins or toys of a certain colour?
- If you have a bath mirror, try putting it on the bottom of the bath or holding it under the water, can your child see themselves? Can they pull funny faces at themselves?
- Once children are happy putting their face in the water, you can get them blowing bubbles for 2-3 seconds with their face in the water and coming up for a breath. They could then repeat this. Then try stretching out on their fronts and having a go as they gain confidence.
Top tip: Don’t grab them a towel or encourage them to rub their eyes. Instead get them to blink, blink, blink the water away. Children won’t have a towel with them in the swimming pool.
Top tip: Humming stops water from going up your nose! Try humming and breathing in through your nose right now, impossible isn’t it?
It might seem silly to wear goggles in the bath, but it is a good way for your child to increase their confidence under the water. It is, however, worth losing them every now and then, so children don’t grow dependent upon them. We always ask children to perform some skills without their goggles each term, for this purpose. It’s also a good idea to ensure their goggles still fit and don’t leak, so they are ready for when we return to lessons! Our wonderful teachers will thank you for this last one 😊
Let us know how you get on with these activities. Why not post on social media and tag our Facebook, @WoodrowHighHouse!
Check back on Wednesday 29th April 2020 for part 3!
Written by Emma Collins
