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WHY YEAR-ROUND SWIM LESSONS ARE SO IMPORTANT FOR CHILDREN

Before you put away the swim gear as cooler weather moves in, consider the benefits of swimming year-round and how it can impact your little ones. We hear you, weighing the pros and cons of year-round swimming lessons. Life gets hectic, calendars get crammed and you’re left trying to decide how necessary it is to keep your little ones in the pool week-in and week-out. And while you know our answer will always be, “Yes, they need to stay in lessons,” you may not be aware of all the reasons why. So we’re happy to share a few.

Children Are Exposed to Water All Year

The CDC states that drowning is the #1 cause of unintentional, injury-related death among children ages 1-4, and this fact goes beyond seasonal constraints. Children are exposed to water on a daily basis, and the reality is that it takes as little as two inches of water and 20 seconds for a drowning to occur.

Think beyond summer swim sessions at beaches and pools; children are around water throughout every season. Parks or trails often have ponds, lakes or streams on the grounds. Bathtubs, toilets and sinks are always around. Water features and buckets of water also pose the potential for water mishaps. Continuation of swim lessons in winter and year-round will help your children build upon their relationship with water, giving them a healthy respect for it and establishing necessary boundaries for when they are in and around it. 

Children Need to Learn Water Safety Skills All Year

We know how quickly the years pass, and as a caregiver, you are focused on offering your little ones a well-rounded education, including extracurricular activities. Sports, music lessons, foreign languages…the list of skills they can learn is endless. However, swim lessons are more than an extracurricular activity. They’re one of the few lessons that can save your child’s life—even as an adult. Additionally, swimming year-round for children has been shown to have benefits for their brain and advancements in learning patterns, improved social and relational skills, and goal development. We encourage you to look at water safety education as a no-questions-asked staple in your child’s upbringing, similar to traditional education, manners and eating vegetables. Because swimming is an invaluable life skill. Plain and simple.

Practice Makes Progress When Children Swim All Year

Retention is a funny thing, isn’t it? Teachers bid students adieu at the end of a school year, tactfully BEGGING parents to keep their children reading, writing and practicing math facts. Why? Because they know that in just a few short weeks, regression of skills will happen if practice goes out the window. The same goes for swim lessons. You’ve watched your child progress (and you’re oh, so proud!), but taking them out of swim lessons, even for a few months, can cause regression and increase the time it’ll take when you return to swim lessons to get them back on track. And water safety has no room for regression when consistent practice makes such life-saving progress. In fact, we recommend swim lessons multiple days a week all year to our Aqua-Tots families. 

At Aqua-Tots Swim Schools, we know the many directions you’re being pulled and the numerous demands that fill your day. That’s why we’re here to spin this swim lesson plate for you. We’ll handle the swim lessons, make scheduling easy and even give you a place for some reprieve while your kiddo is in class so you can tackle all the other amazing memory-making moments. We’re in this together. We’ll see you at the pool.

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