The new school year is officially here, and life has become considerably busier. As your schedule becomes dominated by pickups, drop-offs, and after-school commitments, remember to prioritize swimming lessons.
Here are 12 reasons your child should continue with swim lessons during the school year.
1. Water safety
Water safety is a skill that your child will carry with them for the rest of their life. Achieving basic water competency skills is the first step in the protection of drownings. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, swim lessons have been shown to reduce the risk of drowning by 88%. It takes more than one summer to really refine key survival skills like back float and rollover breathing. Children learn these skills through repetition and multiple lessons.
On top of swim lessons, Diventures also offers free interactive Red Cross Water Safety presentations, just another layer of protection to help end the risk of drowning.
2. Academic achievement
A study done by Robyn Jorgensen from Griffith University found that “children who participate in swimming are achieving a range of developmental milestones earlier than” children who did not participate in swim lessons. By using internationally recognized tests, they were able to conclude that students who attended swim lessons scored significantly higher in areas such as oral expression (being able to speak and explain things), literacy and mathematical reasoning and understanding and complying with directions.
3. Cognitive performance
Memory and concentration are also shown to improve with swim lessons. Swimming requires a lot of coordination which involves concentration and exercise to help strengthen the part of your brain associated with memory. These are all skills children can transfer to the classroom.
4. Developmental skills
What’s one of many great things about group swim lessons? Friends! Our small group classes allow children to interact with one another outside of the classroom. They develop social skills while splashing and having fun. Having a friend to look forward to seeing every week makes the classroom-to-pool transition much easier.
5. Goal setting
Our Passport to Adventure is a unique way to set and achieve goals for your child. Parents and students can clearly see what is required of each level, and they can cross off completed skills. The Passport to Adventure keeps children motivated to improve and level up.
6. Confidence
Confidence is built when your child sets and achieves their goals. The Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh states that “When children feel confident and secure, they’re more likely to succeed in school and achieve personal goals. As they get older, they learn to confront problems and resist peer pressure. More important, having a positive self-image helps a child feel happy and capable of maintaining personal relationships.” Confidence and high self-esteem take time to gain but last a lifetime.
7. Cardiovascular fitness
We all know swimming is a great workout. It works all parts of your body and gets your heart pumping. “The heart is a muscle, and like other muscles, its performance improves when it’s regularly challenged by exercise. Strengthening the heart muscle can help ward off heart disease—the leading cause of death in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—even in early childhood.” (Parents.com) This is especially beneficial after a day of sitting at a desk at school.
8. Sleep patterns
Like we said, swimming uses every part of your body which can exhaust even the most energetic child. Physical fitness is shown to help maintain healthy sleep patterns. Just ask Diventures’ swim parents about nap time after their kid’s swim lessons!
9. Leadership
Someone must be the first to demonstrate a skill during lessons. Why not your child? At swim lessons your child can learn to gather their courage and take the first step, or in this case stroke. It may be uncomfortable sometimes but learning to step outside their comfort zone will benefit your child for the rest of their life.
10. Inclusion
Chances are at swim lessons, not every child will be just like yours. Your child is likely to interact with children from various cultural backgrounds. Experiencing and accepting those that are different when they are younger makes it much easier when they grow through the years.
11. Fosters love and passion for the water
At Diventures we use our passion and the power of water to impact lives, change the world… and have fun doing it. Once your child is water competent, the world is their oyster. Our goal is to foster a love of water which leads to an appreciation for and understanding of our aquatic ecosystems. They could even learn to scuba dive at Diventures!
12. Learning opportunities
At Diventures, the learning doesn’t end in the pool. We are passionate about continuing education and creating awareness for conservation and marine life for all ages. We offer a variety of ecology courses from sharks to turtles to coral. And, stay tuned for more information on new children’s camps and classes coming soon!
Find a swim class at a Diventures near you!
Or, click here to learn more about our ecology courses.
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