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Teaching water safety skills are an essential and integrated part of every swimming lesson at Kingswim.

Can you find the missing words that keep you safe around the water?

Enjoy working through the activities.

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If you’re looking for resources for very little ones Kingswim runs a free water safety program for preschoolers at kindergartens near our centres. The program is an interactive incursion with activities designed for kids under 5 years.

Please ensure you have a safe space when engaging with these activities at home. Active adult supervision is advised at all times.

 

Download our activity sheet to print and easily follow along at home.

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Skills – Readiness for Submerging Your Face in the water

Suitable for Children aged 2+ years old

One of the first key skills we teach young children at Kingswim in our Learn to Swim program, is the development of water confidence and how to feel comfortable submerging your face under the water.

This activity can be daunting to young children at first, as the sensation of being under water feels unnatural to them.

The best way to help them be confident in submerging their face is with gradual steps and lots of practice and encouragement.

Make it fun, your child will learn to love the water!

 

Before you start…

1. Firstly make sure your child is comfortable blowing bubbles in the water. Take a breath and dip mouth in and blow bubbles to exhale out. Refer to our Blowing Bubbles Activity Sheet

 

2. Feel comfortable having water poured down their face. This can be done during bath time games using cups or a toy watering can to tip water onto their head and trickle down their face. If they are not comfortable with this at first, try using a facecloth to cover the face and then pour the water over, eventually moving the facecloth away.

If your child is still not comfortable get them to hold the face cloth and pour the water over themselves. The more control they have, the more comfortable they will be. It’s always good to demonstrate the activity yourself too. Join in the fun and as your child can see it is safe to do, they will be more likely to try it too. 

The more they get comfortable having water poured down their face add more and more water.

You can also get your child comfortable with water on their face by giving them showers.

Tip/TrickTeach your child to blink the water out of their eyes instead of rubbing.

 

3. The next task to be ready is teaching your child how to hold their breath.

 

Skills – Help your child submerge their face in the water (Bath time exercises)

Tips before you start

  • Never trick your child or force them to put their head under the water. It needs to be a fun experience.
  • Keep each session short and simple. Maybe try 3-5 attempts.
  • Be patient and take things slowly.
  • Don’t pressure your child to do each step or rush through them.
  • Children learn off you so modelling the new skill is a very powerful way to teach. So show them each step.
  • When you are teaching your children to put their head underwater, ensure you are always within arm’s reach and keep a close watch on what they are doing.
  • Most importantly have fun and finish each attempt with a positive experience.
  • Remember that when your child has mastered the art of submerging their face, they will enjoy it so much that they will be forever bobbing up and down in the water and will spend more time under than on top.

 

Steps

1. Kiss the water

Get your child to bend down and kiss the water and come back up

 

2. Hold their breath and put their mouth under the water and back up

Get your child to take a large breath, hold and dip their mouth under the water and back up. If they are struggling, you can try cupping some water in their hands first and dip their face in their hands or start off with chin dipped in, then try an ear, then forehead and eventually full face.

 

3. Try submerging other parts of the face

Next try getting your child to dip their cheek, then ear, nose and move on to forehead in the water and back up.

 

4. When submerging your face in the water gradually increase the length of time 

When you think your child is ready encourage them to put their face in the water for a few seconds and come back up. Increase the time as they get more confident.

 

5. Hold breath and then blow bubbles

As they get more confident at putting their face in, increase the time under the water gradually by getting them to hold their breath and blowing bubbles.

When the weather gets warmer, there is nothing better than being in and around the water!

As summer comes, this means heading to the beach with family and friends. Swimming and surfing in the waves, or playing in the sand.

But it’s really important to learn how to be safe around the water.

Test your knowledge of how you, your family, or friends can stay safe at the beach with our quiz. Can you get 100%? Click on each question to reveal the answers.

If you’re interested in additional water safety activities for preschoolers – Kingswim provides a free water safety program at early learning centres in our communities. Find out more about this Kindergarten incursion program.

Bath time can be a great opportunity for kids to first become familiar with water. In a controlled, supervised environment, it offers a chance to nurture key developmental skills around water.

Sadly, in Australia five children under five years of age will drown in the bathtub each year on average, and a further 31 will be hospitalised due to bathtub drowning related incidents.

To combat this, Royal Life Saving Society Australia’s (RLSSA) Keep Watch program offers tips for parents on how they can ensure the safety of their children around the bath.

 

Supervision

Above all, active adult supervision is key to keeping children safe around water.

According to RLSSA, active supervision has four key elements; be prepared, be close, all of your attention, all of the time.

In practice, this means making sure you have everything you need in the bathroom before you begin bath time with your child. Make a checklist to ensure you don’t forget anything. Bathtub toys? A towel for drying off afterwards? A change of clothes?

When filling the bath, make sure the water is at a comfortable temperature. To aid this, the cold water tap should be turned on first, and turned off last. The water level should also remain at the minimum depth necessary. RLSSA recommends this should be only enough to wet the child using your hands.

When your child is in the bath, make sure you are within arm’s reach of them at all times and keep your eyes on them at all times also.

Maintaining engagement with your child during bath time is also important, not only for their safety but for developing skills. This includes talking to them and playing with them. To help with this, you can refer to our range of activities you and your child can do at bath time to develop their skills around the water.

Once bath time has finished, and your child has dried off, don’t forget to drain the bath and close the bathroom door any time it is not in use.

Resuscitation

In the event of an emergency, be prepared to respond. If you have not already, enrol in a CPR or First Aid course so you know what to do. Ideally, CPR skills should be updated or retrained every year.

In any case, RLSSA advises that any response is better than no response. Call 000 as soon as possible, and ‘push and blow’.

In summary, here’s what you can do to prevent your child drowning at bath time:

  • Have everything ready for bathing
  • Cold water tap run first and turned off last
  • Test water to ensure it is comfortably warm
  • Keep water to a minimum depth
  • Ensure child is actively supervised by an adult and within arm’s reach.
  • Never leave your child unattended. Child is with you if you leave the bathroom.
  • Once finshed, turn taps off, remove plug, drain bathtub and close door closed.
  • Update CPR skills annually.

 

For more information, visit:

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