Swimming is one of those things I feel that everyone should know how to do. It is such a huge recreation that to remove it from your options is a major disservice to you and your children. I have been a water safety instructor for over 15 years and have seen everyone from children to adults afraid of the water, concerned over their abilities, and some to the point that to go anywhere near the water would cause major physical symptoms to occur.

The first thing you must understand with children and water is if you have a fear of the water, they will sense that and it will affect their ability to move forward. Let me say in here that it is vital that everyone respect the water and a certain amount of fear is not a bad thing. Personally my daughter has zero fear of anything which cause me quite a bit of anxiety! So one of the things you must keep in mind while going over my tips is that while you do not want them to be afraid of the water, you absolutely need them to respect it. So where is the line?

Respecting the water for a child is understanding rules. They cannot comprehend the subject of "respect" for an inanimate object at a young age. So what you have to teach them are things such as, "Mom/Dad get in first," "you don't swim alone," and "you never go head first into any water." The final step you can address as they get older but even as adults it is not a bad rule to follow.

Now, if your child is afraid of the water you must understand they got that fear somewhere. Children don't know fear, they learn it. The tips here can be used for anything you want your child to do. The first thing is that you must not show fear yourself. If you are afraid of the water you want to make sure that someone else teaches your child to swim and at the same time you need to get instruction yourself so that you don't have the fear.

If you can practice somewhere that the children can walk into that is ideal, if not then try to find somewhere with steps, and if that is not available then make sure that you can stand so you can hold them. Treading water will get VERY old VERY quickly!

The earlier you can get a child in the water the better. Personally our daughter was in the water at 6 months old. By 18 months she was swimming on her own. They call her Bobber because she puts her head down and then pops up when she wants to take a breath. I am not a big proponent of worrying about how they look at first, the major goal is to get them going to the side.

If they already have a fear of the water you will want to make sure you go VERY slow in your progression. You want to start with splashing, and then build up to blowing bubbles. Don't push the child, but do it yourself so they can see what you are doing. As they get the idea of blowing bubbles progress forward to putting their whole head under the water. Rings are a great tool to help with this. Start where they don't have to go under to get the ring, just that they have to bend down. Progressively get deeper.

If they don't have the fear and are very young like ours was, simply blow in their face and dunk them. Blowing in a child's face is an instinctive thing for them to hold their breath. Any parent knows when a child is crying this is a great tool to startle them and break the cycle without using any type of force.

For both levels EVERY time they go under clap, and praise them. Children respond greatly to our praise. They love the attention and they deserve it! As they get better you hold them under their stomach and get them kicking and pulling. Gradually you will let them float without your hand. This is a very tricky stage and you must be in tune with your child or you can turn them the opposite direction because they won't trust you.

Again this maybe better with a professional. I was able to do it with my own daughter only because I have done it for so long. My husband always wanted to grab her and his fear and concern often would set her off at first and she would think she was supposed to be worried.

Gradually you will progress and the child will gain independence and want to show you what they can do. At that point is when you start them going back to the wall. This is the ultimate goal of any swim instruction at first. While we would all like them to be "good" the point is that we want them to be safe. The best thing you can do for safety is teaching them to go back to the wall, not to swim to you. As you teach them you always want them to swim towards a wall.

This is done so if they do fall in they go back to a side. From here they can hold on until you get there.

Overall for any fear that a child has the first thing you must do is take a serious look at why they have that fear. Is it a fear of the water? Is it an attention mechanism? Are they feeding off your fear? Once you know what it is use patience, understanding and A LOT of praise and they will overcome it!

PS as a side note never put your child in water wings. They are one of the worst things you can do while teaching your child to swim!