We want your kids to have a GOLDEN experience each time at Goldfish Swim School,  and what’s more fun than celebrating ocean animals? And, coincidentally, ocean animals have a few skills that come in handy while teaching kids how to swim and be safer in the water. Which animals, you ask? Read on:

Dolphins

These beautiful creatures glide seamlessly through the water – and their antics provide a fun way for kids to easily transition into learning how to swim the butterfly! When kids have advanced levels at Goldfish Swim School and are ready, our instructors will use integrity, compassion and trust to teach the dolphin kick.

Picture a dolphin happily bobbing in and out of the surface of the water and that’s what your kids will mimic. When practicing “dolphin kicks,” legs and feet are to remain together while kicking, and hips should press up and down. Kids enjoy pretending to have a dolphin tail to propel across the swimming pool, and it teaches them the movements of the butterfly stroke.

Sea Otter

Have you ever seen these cute little creatures just chilling in the water, floating on their backs seemingly without a care in the world? That’s what we want to encourage while teaching a back float at Goldfish Swim School.

Our “sea otter float” consists of head back and belly up, with arms and legs slightly open (to help with balance and buoyancy!). Kids can be a bit uncertain at first to float on their backs because it’s something new, but singing songs while pretending to be a sea otter helps them have fun while learning!

Octopus

We don’t have anything to add extra appendages to kids while they practice the “octopus front float,” but we encourage the languid movements of the octopus! The front float is an important swim skill for kids to learn to not only build upon, but it helps keep kids safer in the water by reinforcing how to stay calm and in control. Like an octopus, kids learn to keep their eyes down, with their arms and legs floating open and relaxed in the water.

Crab

Little kids get a kick out of pretending to turn their hands into crab claws for the “crab walk” at Goldfish Swim School! Small hands turn into grabby pincers to scoot safely along the wall of the pool. It may seem simple, but it’s important for swimmers to learn how to coordinate their movements to effectively maneuver around – and in and out of – a pool so that it becomes natural.

The crab walk teaches kids to calmly pull themselves along the wall to get to a better spot (to rest, get out of the pool, etc.). Even babies younger than 1 can start learning how to crab walk! And when it comes to actually getting out of the pool, we teach kids to be fish and use their “fin, fin, belly, and flipper” to hoist themselves up and over the wall.

Fish

Speaking of fish…It’s only natural that we use our gilled friends as inspiration when teaching several water safety and swim skills at Goldfish Swim School! From blowing bubbles to learning breath control, fish are the obvious choice when it comes to an ocean animal kids can pretend to be while learning to swim – since even the littlest of our swimmers can pretend to be a fish!

Goldfish Swim School

Do your kids know these 5 things every kid should know how to do in the water?  At Goldfish Swim School, we teach that and more while providing extraordinary results and WOW! customer service. Find a location near you and sign up for swim lessons today!