Swimming lessons are very important! I’ve had to jump into the deep end of the pool a few times in my life to pull out kids who thought they were cool, and decided to jump off the diving board. It can be very stressful!

Not to mention swimming is probably the best form of exercise there is.

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Yes, one of the most important things you, as a parent or friend, can do for any child who cannot swim is to teach them how to! Not all kids respond well to swimming lessons, even one-to-one instruction does not always work. The very best advice I can give, from experience, is to use flippers and a snorkel kit. Kids are most often frightened of getting water in the face, not happy about dull vision under water and scared of getting out of their depth/falling over and going under. Adults who have amazingly fallen though the gap and cannot swim suffer the same anxieties – they are usually deeper with an adult who is fully aware of the dangers of deep water.

Give anyone who can’t swim a pair of goggles and it protects their faces and gives them vision to see where they are and where they can, cannot or should not go. A snorkel allows them to look under the surface to discover a new world and breathe at the same time. The greatest help are flippers, especially for those who have developed some confidence in water but just can’t manage to swim yet. The extra power given by using the flippers gives a floating sensation that is almost like swimming without any armbands or other help. Kids who have only just got the knack of being able to float really do appreciate having flippers because they can power themselves out of trouble – from being out of their depth into safer shallow water.

Sadly, many public swimming pools in the uk don’t allow snorkel kits. Maybe it’s because kids will mess about and tend to lose flippers and other bits in the deep end which need to be retrieved by the staff. It’s sad.

When we first created our web site, we were targeting families with kids going on holiday to villas/hotels/appartments with swimming pools. One of the first and most important items we sourced to stock were flipper/snorkel sets. We have outlined on the product description just how important they are for building confidence in the water and learning to swim. The quality of the range has now improved and progressed to offer snorkel kits and goggles made by a company which was originally involved with the invention of the Aqualung – an excellent recommendation.

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I think swimming is one of the most important life-saving skills one can learn. I myself do not know how to swim, but have enrolled my kids in lessons. They have been going for a couple of years now and I feel safe for them. My older son hates it and whines that he has to go but that is one of the lessons I insist they take. I enrolled for lessons a couple of years back myself, but have not been able to continue. I hope to get back to it soon. Atleast I’m not terrified of the water now!

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