When teaching young children how to swim the freestyle/front crawl (4-5 year olds especially), a traditional teaching approach may not engage the children enough.  I find this to be especially true for demonstrations to four year olds.  To increase my effectiveness, I often make the demonstrations more like play but without eliminating the important points of emphasis I want my young students to duplicate and understand.   Let’s take a quick look at one example:

As you saw in this video, I told my students that we were going to pretend that they were the coach, and I was there student!  This amuses them and immediately engages them in the demonstration.  After having my young students give me instructions during my demonstration, such as yelling out the cues, I let them give me feedback too.

Give it a try!  Not only will you maximize their willingness to pay attention, you will have a blast with it too as your  kids will say the darndest things!

The International Swimming Hall of Fame has named Jim Reiser the recipient of the 2015 Virginia Hunt Newman Award for his curriculum and approach in teaching infants, toddlers, and children to swim.  Jim is the first American to win the award in 10 years.

If you would like to learn more about the Swim Lessons University certification program and curriculum, make sure to visit us at www.SwimLessonsUniversity.com 

We have training and certification programs designed for both private instructors as well as organizations like YMCAs, Recreation Departments, Athletic Clubs, and more.

Swim Lessons University is currently being utilized by recreation departments, YMCAs, America Camp Association swim lessons programs, as well as by private swimming instructors in 45 states and over 30 countries!

You can also call us toll free at 1-866-498-SWIM (7946).

When teaching preschoolers how to kick, the first thing we like to do have our young learners practice kicking in place. While that is standard in many learn-to-swim programs, here is how we make it fun and different.   If you listen closely, you will notice we made this traditional stationary kick drill into an “activity” by getting the imagination involved–which engages the  young learner and redirects fears.  Take a look and listen:

So saying something like, “Let’s pretend we are out on a boat. We’re taking a nice little boat ride when all of the sudden … our boat gets stuck in the mud! Let’s hold the step and “kick small and fast” so we can get our boat out of the mud! Ready, set, go!”

Then after your young students kick for 15 seconds or so, congratulate them for kicking so well. Say something like:  “you kicked so well you got your boats out of the mud! Say “HORRAY!”

Hope you enjoyed today’s blog.   To see how we then transition that skill into other fun swim lesson activities, you may want to check out the 2nd Edition of our SWIM 101 video.  How to Teach Young Children to Swim.  A Comprehensive Video Course for Training and Certifying Swimming Instructors.

The International Swimming Hall of Fame has named Jim Reiser the recipient of the 2015 Virginia Hunt Newman Award for his curriculum and approach in teaching infants, toddlers, and children to swim.  Jim is the first American to win the award in 10 years.

If you would like to learn more about the Swim Lessons University Online Swim Instructor Certification  and curriculum, make sure to visit us at www.SwimLessonsUniversity.com

Swim Lessons University is currently being utilized by recreation departments, YMCAs, America Camp Association swim lessons programs, as well as by private swimming instructors in 45 states and over 30 countries!

You can also call us toll free at 1-866-498-SWIM (7946).

If you’re anything like me, you’re always looking for ways to be more creative and make your swim lessons more fun, without taking too much away from practice time.  Nothing is more satisfying for a swim instructor, or for a swim lessons parent as far as that goes, than to see the children truly enjoying learning to swim.  When you can cause your swim lesson students to smile and laugh, they will look forward to each lesson and want to come back for more!

One idea I recently came up with was to have a “Tongue Twister of the Day.”  The children absolutely love it!  Give it a try!  Here are eight good ones:

Swim Lesson #1:  “Rubber baby buggy-bumpers”

Swim Lesson #2:  “Red leather, yellow leather”

Swim Lesson #3:  “She shall sell seashells”

Swim Lesson #4:  “Eight apes ate eight apples”

Swim Lesson #5:  “Cool clean canned clams”

Swim Lesson #6:  “A stiff stack of thick steaks”

Swim Lesson #7:  “Around the rugged rocks, the ragged rascal ran.”

Swim Lesson #8:  “Toyboat, toyboat, toyboat”

Share this swim lessons activity with your swimming instructors, and let the fun begin!  Enjoy!