Learn to Swim: Step-by-Step Water Confidence and Safety Skills for Babies and Young Children
is a beautiful book about teaching kids to swim. It has great pictures, step by step instructions, and games and techniques for teaching your children how to swim. I especially liked the fact that it very clearly stated what children can learn at each stage. So Caleb is now old enough to be learning how to hold his breath. (He’s 11 months old.) They not only said he can learn how to hold his breath, but explained how to teach him and what to watch for to see if he’s comfortable with it or we need to take some more time. I now have a very clear guide of what I can work on with him and what I might want to wait a bit on.
As a side note, my problem with Caleb is not making sure he’s comfortable or getting his face wet – it’s teaching him that he’s not a fish – he can’t just walk in water over his head! He was quite happy to be in the water and immediately went walking towards his dad and didn’t seem to mind at all that it meant he inhaled a couple of lungfuls of water in the process!