This blog explores the many benefits of spreading swimming lessons for your children across all four seasons of the year.
Get ready for your summer hols before you go
Passports tick, keys tick, swimming lessons tick. Teaching the children to swim is just one of those things it’s best to get sorted before you leave for the airport if you want to make the most of your next summer vacation. That means getting started straight away, whatever the weather’s like at the moment.
There’s a popular myth that swimming in the winter can give children colds and sniffles, but it’s simply not true to say that having wet hair in cold weather will lead to the doctor’s surgery. On the contrary, it’s being cooped up inside, spreading germs, that causes cold and flu, not the low temperatures when you leave the house. Fun and exercise are actually known to boost the immune system, not weaken it.
Enjoy all the benefits all year round
The benefits of swimming for children are far-reaching and they cover physical health, mental health and general well-being. Let’s take a quick look at these benefits in a little more detail.
What makes swimming different from most sports is that it’s low impact. This means, when properly supervised, the youngest of toddlers can safely enjoy a workout in the water with extraordinary benefits for their physical development. As they grow, children will continue to reap rewards from the exercise with increased blood flow that is known to strengthen the heart.
Swimming is also a brilliant way to increase lung capacity, slowly but surely. This is down to the fact that the activity encourages your child to regulate their breathing pattern while they move through the water, exhaling as deeply as they inhale. This benefits them in two ways: it helps them feel calm and relaxed and it also reduces toxin levels in the body.
Release those endorphins!
Swimming has long been recommended for the way it reduces anxiety and stress in children. This can be partly attributed to the endorphins that are released within the body during exercise.
So much so that swimming has even been prescribed by the NHS to combat mental health and anxiety. Those endorphins we mentioned combat the stress hormones that are released by the body, while the enhanced blood flow that occurs can help improve memory, mood and can also help children get a better night’s sleep.
Having explored all the benefits of exercising in the water, we need to point out it’s not just the swimming that’s beneficial with swimming lessons - it’s the lesson part too.
Many children flourish when they stick to a regular routine that gives them a strong sense of security. Weekly swimming lessons throughout the year give children structure in their lives and something to look forward to.
Fun fact!
Did you know there’s even evidence that swimming lessons can improve a child’s performance in the classroom? A recent academic study by UCL has found that children in swimming lessons score higher on average in subjects such as Maths.
How come, you might ask? Well, the study puts this phenomenon down to the sense of achievement that comes from learning to swim in the pool being reflected by an appetite for success at school which translates to higher marks in tests and exams.
With only a few others in the class, swimming lessons also provide the perfect opportunity for children, particularly those who don’t have many close friends at school, to meet other kids and develop their social skills.
These interactions are structured in the case of swimming lessons, and making friends is easier when you’re regularly spending time with the same children. ‘Regularly’ is a key point here. That’s why it’s all-year-round swimming lessons that are likely to be most beneficial for your child’s development.
Why take a break from something you love?
Long breaks between swimming lessons can make things go backwards in the pool (and, no, we’re not talking about backstroke). As well as forgetting the good habits they’ve learned from their instructor, your child could well lose touch with the friends they’ve made if they stop their lessons for six months or more.
So, whichever way you look at it, it would seem that swimming lessons are a suitable activity for all seasons. Particularly if your child enjoys them. As parents ourselves, we know anything that makes your child happy is going to make you happy too. And, let’s face it, an all-year-round smile is something we could all do with!
Booking lessons with Swimtime, the UK’s largest independent swim school, couldn’t be easier. There are plenty of courses to choose from and you’ll be able to quickly find your local pool and all the other details here.
