As summer winds down many parents ponder removing their children from swim lessons. Many believe that after 2-4 months of lessons that their child is “water-safe” and “drown proof”. This approach to swimming is antiquated and dangerous. Water Safety and Swim Skills should not just be practiced during the Summer when temperatures are warm. In the southern states, like Texas, where the climate is hot and warm through November many neighborhood pools are left open, lakes and ponds are still frequented, backyard pools remain uncovered, posing as safety and drowning hazards for children.
Learning to Swim
For kids, learning to swim is not like learning to ride a bicycle. They won't easily retain the skill unless they’re consistently putting it to use. Learning to swim is more like learning a language or playing an instrument where if you don't use it, you lose it. We believe that no one should “lose” what is considered a life skill.
Many of us have memories of being thrown into the pool at the beginning of each summer. We remember having to re-learn the swim skills we learned the previous summer from scratch because we hadn’t practiced our swim skills during the school year.
Year-round swimming provides an opportunity to keep student’s skills fresh and top of mind helping them to be swim safe, water safe, water happy, and water confident throughout the year. If your child hasn't been in a pool since the end of summer and they happen to fall into an open pool or wander into a pond or lake in February, you'd want them to remember their water safety skills.
Do yourselves and your children a favor and keep them in lessons year-round. If you have questions about our year-round swim lesson program please contact SafeSplash Owners, Robert or Dulcie at rcanales@safesplash.com – dcanales@safesplash.com.
Robert and his wife Dulcie own, operate, and teach at SafeSplash locations in the San Antonio, TX area.
