Would you like a fun, breath holding activity for your beginners with a Halloween theme? Give this one a try!

Halloween is just around the corner, so I wanted to share an activity I created called the “Haunted Island.”   I use it mainly during “In-line/prone kick” skill since it’s a simple skill that doesn’t require a lot of feedback.  In other words, when I get to the part of the lesson where we are working on the freestyle/front crawl (I combined a Swim 102 student with a Swim Strokes 201 student), I can get back to giving the children more specific, corrective feedback to ensure the class is both INSTRUCTIONAL and FUN!

I think that you will find that when you teach perpetual swim lessons (weekly lessons vs. sessions), theme-based activities and games are extremely valuable to keep the monotony out of the lessons.  Of course, it is equally important that you don’t lose sight of the skills that your students need to learn in the curriculum.

At any rate, here is an activity/game for the in-line kick that we call “The Haunted Island!”  I hope you and your students have as much fun with it as we did!

While this a seasonal activity, it is perfectly adequate to utilize in the In-line Kick part of the Swim Lessons University Lesson Plan.

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).

Have you ever taught a private swimming lesson? Have you ever needed a couple activities in your back pocket to add some fun and variety to the lesson?  Here’s a couple quick ideas that you could try in your toddler or preschool swim lessons:

While these aren’t regular activities that are part of our curriculum, they are certainly great “fillers” that can keep your private swim lessons fun and upbeat, or something you can throw in for a change of pace.  As you could see, this little toddler absolutely loved “The Motorboat Song” and the little tosses up in the air!

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 you can provide a positive, playful environment in your swimming lessons that also produces lots of quality repetition for your preschoolers, you are guaranteed to have success.   This is all possible because your students are fully engaged and having fun.  Here is an example of one of the kick activities for young children that will be featured in the 2nd Edition (coming in 2014) of Swim 101 Certification Course video and swim lesson plan:

A FEW IMPORTANT COMMENTS:

This particular video was shot in 1999.  While children enjoy it just as much today, we will be making a few tweaks for the 2nd Edition Swim 101 Course Video:

1.  We now use the “thicker, super sized noodle” which is especially helpful when you have young 3-year olds just learning their balance or larger children in which the small noodle isn’t buoyant enough to give them the appropriate amount of support.

2. The instructor comments, “nice and straight legs.” That is an exaggeration. We really don’t want the legs perfectly straight AND it would be very difficult, let alone ineffective to kick with “straight legs.” But since young students generally bend the knees excessively, feedback cues such as “straighten the legs out” can be effective even though you don’t mean “literally straight.”

3.  When manipulating the legs, Swim Lessons University now recommends a technique we call the “Sack of Sugar.”   Watch this video to see how to do it:

4.  We now use the smaller nets as you just saw in the video demonstrating the “sack of sugar.”   If you would like to purchase the smaller nets, email jreiser@swimprofessor

Hope you enjoyed this post!

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 swim instructors start teaching formal swimming strokes in their learn to swim classes, we often forget how monotonous the repetition involved with mastering a new stroke becomes.  This monotony leads leads to boredom, and boredom leads to uninspired students.   Uninspired students leads to students “going through the motions.”  If your students are “going through the motions,” the chances of them making technical improvements, or even fundamental improvements in their stroke are drastically reduced.  You can give the best, corrective feedback available, but if your students aren’t inspired to make a change, they simply won’t.

How do you change this?  First, understand the way a typical child  approaches his/her activities.  Unlike adults, very few children are naturally inspired to be the most technically-sound kid on the block.  What do we know about children?  They want to race, play around, go underwater, and simply have fun–especially when they are in the swimming pool!  So as swimming instructors, we have to be one step ahead.  Here is a simple little game I use with my stroke classes that the kids really love, it’s called the “Olympic Games.”  Here’s are some basic instructions:

Step #1:  Give an Overview, i.e., “Now we are going to play a game called the Olympic Games.”

Step #2:  Determine the skill you will award them on based on their performance:  “If you show me super nice, big strokes on your freestyle, will will pretend you won the gold medal.  If they are good, we will pretend you will won the silver medal, and if they are pretty good, we will pretend you won the bronze.   If they are bad, we will pretend you won nothing at all (I am usually silly when I say this and rarely give nothing at all).

Step #3:  Start your student, and upon completion, give your student some feedback or a brief evaluation.

Step #4:  Tell him/her what medal he/she won.

Step #5:  Celebrate it in a fun way, whether it’s doing a body bump, a high five, or pumping their fists-make it fun and let them come up with some fun ways to celebrate on their own.

Swim Lessons Games really can lead to improvement.  I hope you and your students enjoy this game while making some stroke technique strides in the process!

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 was 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).

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!

Do you incorporate the use of toys when you teach your swim lessons for kids?  Swim Toys can certainly add a dynamic to your class that helps young children get extra excited about learning, and often even help redirect a child who may be scared or hesitant in the beginning.  Nevertheless, when you teach swimming lessons to children between three and five years old, I think it’s extremely important that the toys have a purpose.  In other words, don’t just have toys for the sake of having toys.

Here is a list of examples of swim lesson activities, the swim lesson toys we use, and the purpose of what we are teaching in our preschool swim lessons curriculum at Swim Lessons University:

• First Time Submersion (skill), Danny the Dolphin Time (activity), & Dolphin Puppet (toy)
• Kicking (skill), Let’s Go Fishing (activity), Floating fish and small nets (toys)
• Prone Kicking & Breath Holding (skill), Super Heroes (activity) and Super Hero  Capes (toy)
• Paddle Stroke (skill), Pretend You’re a Puppy (activity), and Puppy Noses, which we place on the forehead (toy)

Many times you can do without toys and just get the children to use their imagination.  That’s a big part of making learning like play.  We do this when we practice swimming with the face in the water, and we pretend to “Swim Like a Fish (activity).”

You can watch these activities in action and many more on the Swim 101 and/or Home Swim School DVD’s.  You can also watch free swim lesson video samples of some of these swim lesson ideas to get an inside look at what great DVD courses we have for you and your swim lesson instructors!