Teaching children to swim and be comfortable in the water is an important life lesson and the earlier it can be started, the better. It encourages them to exercise and could help save their life in the event of an emergency in the water. As well as these practical reasons it's also a fun activity for them to take part in rain or shine.
As many parents and teachers know, it can be a difficult task to keep kids' attention span for a long period of time, so a great way to help them to learn to swim as well as being entertained is to introduce pool games! Here are a few of our favourites...
1. Marco Polo
One child is chosen as 'It', they then have to swim around with their eyes closed calling 'Marco' while the other players say 'Polo' whilst swimming around the pool, avoiding being caught. The person who is 'It' has to find people by following the sound of their voices, once someone is caught, they become 'It'. Make sure to play this game in shallow waters.
2. Treasure Hunt
This is a classic game using pool diving toys
, or anything that will sink to the bottom of the pool. Just scatter the objects into the pool and wait for them to sink, then the kids can practice their diving and breathing underwater skills to retrieve them. A simple game that can be played over and over again.
3. Dolphin Race
This game comes with many names but essentially it is a swimming underwater challenge. You can either set a distance and the fastest one to get their when swimming underwater wins, or set no distance and the winner is the one who can swim the furthest whilst holding their breath underwater.
4. Scavenger Hunt
The scavenger hunt is similar to the treasure hunt but requires multiples of items and a couple of kids. For example 3 coins, 3 diving sticks, 3 diving rings etc. Place the items in their multiples at different places around the pool. Then each team or person has to collect one of each of item and the fastest to collect them all wins.
Sharks is a game of tag where players are allowed to hop in and out of the water. One child is chosen as 'It' and they then have to swim around the pool to catch the other players. Players can hop out of the pool to avoid being caught, but only for five seconds at a time. A classic but always fun game.
Do you have any other games you play with your kids that we haven't mentioned? We'd love to hear about them so just leave your suggestions below...