Toddler Swimming Lessons

I love to swim. I was a total pool rat growing up and shockingly enough I was a certified lifeguard for several years and did aquatic therapy to children with special needs. If I'm at a hotel even for one night and it has a pool I will be in it. I think I've passed this love of water on to Blondie Boy.



He loves the water and splashes and jumps in over and over. He even attempts to paddle some and will "kick kick kick" when asked in the pool. When we were on holiday we had a Konfidence float suit which has 8 removable floats that you can take out as your child gets more confident in the water. It was great because it gave him the extra bit of buoyancy but he could still move around and kick while lying in the correct position in the water.


Personally I'm completely against things like water wings or floaties because they give children a false sense of security in the water and can be detrimental to their swimming development but since the float suit still requires you to hold yourself up and swim it aids in development rather than hinders it.


When we got back from France I decided to try him at swim lessons when we got back and he loved the singing and chasing rubber ducks in the water but going under water not so much. Apparently if you blow in a baby's face before you dunk them under water they have an instinct to breathe in and therefore not drink the pool when they go under. Blondie Boy has no such instinct.


He goes under and comes up coughing and sputtering having drank half the pool. He can blow bubbles in the pool (one of the first things I taught back in the day) but he still doesn't quite grasp in any way shape or form to keep his mouth shut UNDER water.


I'd like to take him back to lessons but I wonder if maybe it's better to just try and keep taking him on my own (which is free) and focusing on getting him to go under water before trying lessons again? What age was your child when you taught them to swim and did you do it yourself or go to lessons? What is the magical secret to teaching them they don't have gills and can't breathe under water?


The Konfidence Float Suit was provided to Transatlantic Blonde for review but all opinions are our own.

Coast Along 2011

Yesterday Blondie Boy, his Grandma and I walked 6 miles along the Ayrshire coast, a little bit more than the average 6km women and children walk to get water often from unprotected water sources, for Water Aid. You might have seen some of the photos I tweeted along the way and I hope you followed the tweets of the Coast Along Ambassadors, too (you can catch up by searching #CoastAlong on Twitter). We had a lovely afternoon (except for the part where Blondie Boy pissed all over me) and I'm so glad we were able to take part. 

I've put together a short video of our day and uploaded some photos as well. You'll hear me say it in the video but I can't imagine having to walk that far to get water (and not necessarily clean water) and then lugging it back with your children.


1.4 million children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation - 4,000 child deaths a day or one child every 20 seconds. Yes you heard me right, diarrhoea kills more children every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined. How is that possible in today's world? Diarrhoea should be something annoying but not something that kills you.  


A  huge thank you to everyone who has donated so far (including SnugBaby for Blondie Boy's Sling) and if you haven't yet please do consider donating; even £1 will make such a difference in helping get access to clean water and improving the lives of the 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water.