Teaching Your Toddler About Water Safety

Did you know that a child can drown in just an inch of water? That’s right – a mere puddle. That brings home the importance of teaching kids water safety at a very young age. Of course you should always supervise your children when they’re near water, but realistically, you can’t watch them 24/7. Sometimes they’re going to be in the care of people who might not be as vigilant as you.

Protect Your Child Against Drowning

The very best thing you can do for your children is to arrange for swim lessons. Private lessons can be arranged so that children can learn how to swim in the familiar environment of the home pool, which is where most drowning accidents occur. In addition to learning the basics of water safety, kids can also learn breathing techniques, what to do when they swallow water, and how to recover if they should fall in accidentally. Swim lessons aren’t a 100% guarantee of safety, but they’re a very good start. In fact, almost 90% of drownings can be prevented.

Story Time

You can also help your child to learn water safety when they’re not having swim lessons. There are books available that use fun stories and enchanting illustrations to teach water safety. One such book is Claire Llewellyn’s “Watch Out! Near Water!” The cartoon illustrations combine with little blocks of text that teach children how to be safe in swimming pools and at the beach. Another great book is Jean Pendziwol’s “A Treasure at Sea for Dragon and Me.” In this book, a girl takes a dragon with her to the beach, but the dragon doesn’t know very much about water safety. It’s up to the girl to teach the dragon! There’s a catchy poem that kids will love memorizing and reciting, and there’s also a checklist of safety rules.

Let’s Pretend

Another fun thing you can do with your children is have them act out what has to be done to stay safe in and around water. Give your child a lifejacket, and see how fast he can put it on and take it off correctly. Emphasize the importance of wearing a lifejacket. You can also put a blue blanket or towel on the floor, and have the child pretend that it’s a swimming pool. Have him walk around it, and remind him that if he runs, he could slip and fall in the water, or fall and hit his head. Get him to practice jumping in the water. Turn the lights on and off to make pretend lightning, and tell him that when he sees the lightning, it means that he has to get out of the pool. This is a fun way to learn water safety even when you’re not at the pool.

More Fun!

Take your child to the community pool, but don’t go in the water. Instead, have him observe other people who are in the pool, and have him watch for dangerous activities. He’ll feel so proud that he knows better than to run around the pool like that kid over there!

You can also use a toy phone to have your child practice dialing 911 to report an emergency in the water. A word of caution, though – be sure you don’t do this with a real phone. You don’t want to have to explain what you’re doing to an emergency operator!

Summary

Water safety can be learned even when your child isn’t actually in the water. However, the best way for your child to learn water safety is with swimming lessons from a qualified instructor.