Essential Equipment for Swimming

 

We have tried a number of different swim floatation devices with our 4 girls over the years, but the one that K is wearing in this picture is my favorite.

This is the swim floaty that K has been using for the past couple of years. I like the fact that it has an actual rubber inner tube inside it, making it very strong.  You can never be too careful around the water, but I feel fairly safe with this one.   

This is the original suit that my older girls used, but I found that the bottom of the suit pulled up & became very uncomfortable, especially under a regular swimsuit.  It was much better with a wetsuit, but I find that the red one without any bottom part stays on just as well as this one, with the added bonus of being comfortable. 

I got both of these suits as hand me downs, so I'm not sure where you can buy them, but for the purposes of searching, the brand names are Swim Ways & I Learn to Swim 123.

When my 3rd daughter was 2, she spent the summer sitting on the ladder of our backyard pool & watching her older sisters swim & only on the very hottest days did she venture into the pool.  She spent most of the following summer the same way.  It was until the summer she was 4, someone gave us some hand me downs that included a little wetsuit. We tried it on her the first time we used the pool the next season & to our surprise, it kept her so warm that she spent the whole afternoon in the pool!  Over the next two months, she spent more time in the pool than she had in her entire life!  From then on I have made sure that my girls have a wetsuit to wear in the pool.  As they have gotten older, they have chosen to wear only regular swimsuits in the public pool, but on chillier days, even my older girls will occasionally don a wetsuit to brave our cool Canadian summer weather in our own pool.

K has had a wetsuit from the time she was a baby & has rarely gotten cold.  Last summer during swim lessons, most of the kids would be blue & shivering by the time the lessons ended & she was still raring to go.  It is amazing to me the difference it makes to their comfort in the water.

Diving into the water......................K doesn't jump in anymore - she dives.  

From my angle, it looks a lot more like a belly flop, but she insists that she is diving:)!


..............and a swimming update from today.....................K swam 2 weeks ago, on Friday & again today.   The difference in the 3 times is huge!  She is still only swimming a short distance at a time, but is swimming further each time & was really using her arms a lot better today. She is so determined & just keep practicing again & again & is even practising floating on her back a lot which, for the longest time, she was very scared of.