5 Easy and Fun Games to Get Your Kids Interested in Swimming

While swimming lessons are definitely helpful, there are a number of ways you can teach your kids swimming skills, water safety, and develop a love for all things aquatic. Here are five easy and fun games that’ll help your kids take those first few independent strokes in the water. These games will help children as young as 18 months old learn how to swim.

1. Talk to the fishies
Practice talking to the pretend fishies by getting your kids to blow bubbles in the water. You can then ask them to put their ear in the water and listen to the pretend response.

Skill – Breath control. This should be the first step to teach your kids how to swim independently.

Tip – Make sure that you also submerge your face and blow bubbles with a smile on your face. This way, even your little ones will be more apt to try that.

2. Catch the fishies
Sit by the poolside next to your kids at the shallow end and ask your kids to try and catch fishies with its tiny hands. Ask them to perform a ‘front-crawl-like’ arm stroke by reaching their arms in the air, plunging them into the water, and pulling the water towards themselves. This will help them get used to the arm motion of swimming.

Skill – Developing a strong, fast arm motion

Tip – Making sure your kids are performing this activity with their fingers together so that the fishies don’t escape.

3. Motorboat from float
Hold your kid under their arms, facing you, and start walking back through the water. As you go along picking up the speed, the water will push your kid into a front float position gently.

Skill – It’ll help your kid become comfortable in a horizontal swimming position.

Tip – As your kids get accustomed to the front float position, hold them in a way it helps them get used to position that their body will be in once they start swimming.

4. Red light, green light
Sit next to your kids on the shallow steps of the pool. Once you say green light, have them kick like crazy whereas the red light will mean stop and the yellow light will mean kick slowly.

Skill – Kicking and propulsion

Tip – Make sure that you’re encouraging your little ones to point their toes as this will propel them through the water. To make things extra challenging, help them balance on a flutter board and get them to practice kicking this way too.

5. Taking the plunge
Towards the shallow end, crouch two feet from the wall and hold your kid so that they are standing on your knees with your hands supporting their waist. Ask them to jump off your knees and grab hold of the wall.

Skill – Swimming independently

Tip – Gradually increase the distance from the wall and remind your kids to catch the fishies with their hands and kick their feet. They may struggle the first few times but you should encourage them, applaud their progress and within no time you’ll have a super swimmer on your hands.