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!