We love connecting with our community, especially mom-owned businesses. When The Little Seed asked to feature KidSwim in an upcoming Tackle Thursday, we jumped at the chance. What does KidSwim know best? Water safety!

Here’s a short excerpt from our Tackle Thursday guest blog on The Little Seed:

While I understand the desire to get a child swimming as quickly as possible, especially in L.A. where pools and pool based activities are a part of life, it’s important to realize that in order for a child to truly be water safe, they need three components to work together and none of them are enhanced by a ten day intensive swim program.

What better way to bond with your baby than in the pool?

KidSwim offers an array of parent/child classes. We can come to your pool or you can come to ours. Looking for one-on-one lessons or a group of moms? Both options are available. We work with babies of all ages and abilities, including special needs. Dads, don’t worry, you’re welcome too!

Bring your baby and bathing suit, because we’re blowing bubbles, doing kicks and having a great time. Contact us today at 888.579.SWIM (7946) for rates and availability. It’s never too soon to swim!

Summer is in full swing and we’re having a blast in the pool. Kids are kicking hard, blowing bubbles, diving for rings and becoming water safe. We love lessons and watching you progress!

KidSwim has now secured a pool in Palos Verdes and provides only the best in swim instruction. We offer one-on-one and parent/child classes, as well as water safety seminars. Interested in lessons? Contact us today!

Here are a few more photos from last week’s lessons in Cheviot Hills and the South Bay. Want to see more? Click here to view our photos on Flickr and remember to “Like” us on Facebook!

Several years ago I taught a little boy who, at the age of two was swimming enthusiastically across the length of his pool.  He just loved swimming and would wait in his bathing suit at the front window for an hour before his lesson.  The following summer was more of the same. Now age 3, he was able to swim a recognizable freestyle, breaststroke and elementary backstroke.  He would jump into the deep end and tread water , dive down to the bottom and pick up rings and never wanted the lesson to be over when it was.

Then one day, he protested about getting in.  The next lesson he protested getting in and cried when I asked him to do some swimming.  He replied that he only wanted to stay on the steps and play games.  Then he no longer wanted to put his face in. Little by little, each skill, each activity became an opportunity for him to protest and his adamancy won out over my reasoning.

Sometimes God calms the storm.  At other times, he calms the sailor.  And sometimes he makes us swim.  ~Author Unknown

Unlike any other sport, swimming is the only one that is necessary as a life saving skill. I have found that people who are passionate about swimming are enigmas to those who aren’t. While I could go on about the magic of the water, the benefits of swimming, the positive mental and physical effects it has on the body and mind over time…. for days; it just wouldn’t be interesting if you’re not a water person. What I have learned however, are some valuable life lessons that are mirrored in the practices of learning to swim.

If there is one isolated skill that seems to be emblematic of a child’s ability to swim, it’s the act of ‘going under the water.’ I get asked this question repeatedly by parents with children as young as 4 or 5 months, on upwards: ‘when do they start going underwater?’

I think, rather unfortunately, that the act of swimming underwater has become associated with a water safe child and that once a child can in fact swim underwater, they have passed that barrier of non-swimmer, so that finally the parent can breathe easier about their child’s safety.