Swim Lesson Game

Treasure: Treasure is an amazing game to play with your kids in the pool during their swim lessons, no matter the level of swimming they are. The game includes dive sticks (or anything that sinks in the pool). A free alternative is an old spoon that you do not mind in the chlorine. Treasure should usully be played in the middle of a swim lesson when the child's excitement is low and they are getting tires.

Treasure always starts with a magical story. I put all of the dive sticks on something that floats and tell a story as so, although you can make up anyone you like for your child's swim lesson:

Once upon a time there was a captain named (child’s name here). He/she sailed the mighty seas collecting different treasures from the depths of the ocean. Once night there was a horrible storm. Waves bigger than the tallest building you have ever seen ripped through captain (child’s name)’s boat. The captain could not keep the boat under control. One final wave crashed down and with the wave the boat fell apart, and all of the treasure fell to the bottom of the ocean. Captain (child’s name) made it to land. Destined to find his/her treasure he/she rented scuba gear and swam all the way to the crash site, diving down to collect all of the fallen treasure.

While you are telling this story (or any story you make up) you want to make sure that you are being very enthusiastic and getting the child pumped up for this game. This should make them incredibly excited for their swim lessons. They should want to play a few times every lesson, although you have to make sure you limit the game and know your child is getting enough practice with their other pool skills. When he/she first starts diving you can help by pushing down on the back, head first. Make sure you do not push them so hard as to smack their head on the bottom. Every time they retrieve a treasure make sure you cheer them on.

As your child's swim lessons progress your pressure on them should be less and less, until they can dive by themselves. You want to make sure just not to push them, but to actually guide them the way that their body should be when diving. This means telling them to put their feet up to the sky, kicking at the surface and pulling the water with their hands down toward the bottom. It is also important that you make sure they can turn around and push off of the bottom once they run out of breath. This is so important because it teaches the children to always be aware up from down, and how to reach the surface in the pool by themselves.

Games are such an important part of swim lessons. Sometimes swim lessons can be very challenging for children, so there has to be a few points during where they are allowed to play and have fun. Treasure is a great game for swim lessons because it will never get old. You can eventually twerk the game so that they dive deeper. You can also dump out a whole bunch throughout the pool and then race to see who can get them faster; you or the child. You can also put out about ten and time them. Do this every swim lesson so that they can track how much faster they are getting in the pool.