Parent & Tot (Infant)

Ages: 6 months through 3 years old.

Parents and children should be in the class together. Appropriate for all children at least 6 months old and up to 3 years old. The Parent and Tot class is designed to introduce parents and infants to swimming in the water through a fun, loving, and caring environment. We stress play, repetition, and teaching parents how to hold their baby and toddler to get the most out of their time in the water.

Lessons are taught in shallow water where parents can stand comfortably while supporting and holding their child.

Play games, sing songs, and do independent activities to build familiarity, set expectations to allay fear, and build a rapport with other families and instructors.

Quick Test Criteria:

Age. Are the swimmers between 6 months and 3 years old.
*If the swimmer is at least 2, comfortable walking, and familiar with the swimming skills consider Guppies.*

Testable Skills

Water comfort
Supported front glides
Supported back glides
Scooping
Games, Songs, Splashing

Why are these skills in Guppies Toddler?

The main goal of the parent taught class is to introduce the water to an infant and the parent. We know that the majority of time parents spend in the water with their children is often at public pools during open swim. Providing opportunities for instruction and guided play is a wonderful way to help teach parents how to make the most of their time in the water outside of lessons. This way, parents and children can be prepared for the more advanced swimming in guppies and level one.

One of the major goals for this class is to provide water comfort to the infant. We can do that by setting expectations with consistent structure. Generally, we follow the same progression of skills using repeatable lesson plan so that infants and younger swimmers are not overwhelmed with new and different experiences. Every time they encounter the pool.

We also begin introducing, supported front and back glides with an emphasis on teaching the parents how to hold their child correctly and giving multiple opportunities through different games and activities for the parents to practice this with their child. It is important to note that we are not looking for, excellent form or precise control. Instead, we are looking for general body motion, and exposure to being held horizontally in the water and suggesting to put the face in.

Scooping is bringing a child underwater, so that they are familiar with the feeling of it, and begin to understand the concept of holding their breath. We do this in a progressive, slow and loving manner without fear or excessive dunking. If a child is wailing and screaming then we are doing something wrong. There can be brief bursts of fear but overtime those should lessen significantly if we are following the appropriate scooping progression.

Finally, the majority of our time spent in this class is working on games, songs, and interacting with the water so that swimmers understand intuitively that pushing against the water has a reaction.Songs will be played on a speaker or on a projector along with videos, so that infants and parents can follow along, sing with, and do activities in the water that promote excitement, joy, and learning.