Our Baby Lessons provide a fun, water safe environment where baby is introduced to the water with a parent. Lessons are planned to encourage one on one bonding, body awareness and social interaction through singing, playing and moving in the water. Babies can learn to develop their natural instinct to hold their breath using word association which teaches the baby to hold their breath when their face makes contact with water. As your baby progresses and builds water confidence independence is encouraged in fun activities that aim to teach basic swimming skills.
Our Baby Lessons have a maximum of seven in the class and are for 30minutes duration and are run to the Term Dates. Classes are held most days of the week and are broken into four groups determined by age.
Tadpoles Classes for 3 - 9 month olds introduce parent and baby to the water in a fun, safe environment. We aim to teach parents basic skills on water safety and encourage water confidence in your baby. We use word association to develop and re-learn your babies natural instinct of holding their breath, which is lost at around 6 weeks. The classes aim to develop enjoyment of the water and very basic swimming skills through singing and age appropriate fun, bonding activities.
Frogs Classes for 9 - 15 month olds are lots of fun and include introducing the turn and reach response when submerged in the water. Babies of this age will start to grasp and release and progress from crawling to walking in age appropriate water confidence activities. Kicking and arm actions are introduced through word association with the parent being instrumental in achieving actions. Floating aids are also introduced in a playful manner.
Crabs Classes for 15 month olds - 2 year olds focus on encouraging independence as babies are now able to recognise words and perform the actions for basic skills such as kicking, bubbles and arms. In this class we aim to encourage the babies to combine at least two of the three main actions required for swimming, which is supported by the parent. The survival instinct continues to be a priority in these lessons and of course lots of singing and learning through play.
Turtles Classes for 2 - 3 year olds focus on developing independence in the water. Toddlers are generally able to understand and perform the basics skills of swimming with parental support. Noodles are used to develop your toddlers confidence and give them the chance to sense and develop their own buoyancy. Water safety is high priority at this stage and lots of activities are used that encourage the toddlers to use the basic swimming skills they have been taught throughout our baby classes. Once your toddler is able to perform the basic swimming skills and understand and follow simple instructions in most cases they are able to move on to our Pre-School lessons., which is without their parent in the water.
