I have two toddlers and I've signed (or plan to sign) them up for two things: swim lessons & tumbling.
* I don't care/want them to be Olympic swimmers but if they fall in a pool or river, I want them to be able to tread water and get out without panicking.
* Despite everything I say and do, they're going to get on the roof. I know, I did. ;) So when they fall, I want them to fall the best way possible.
As a parent, I don't see my job to protect them from all consequences but to prevent and/or prepare them for the worst.
Both my kids have been sure that they know how to swim when too young to have even tried. We signed them up for swimming lessons to make them respect water a bit more, and of course learn how to swim. They don't need to figure out that they can't swim when they're unsupervised, as that's a bit too dangerous.
My oldest started in a school that used very traditional methods (first learn legs then add arms, start by dry swimming on land and move to water, and so on), and she took the course over and over without progressing. For unrelated reasons, we switched schools, and the new school focused on just spending time in water, running in shallow water, floating, dipping your head under water as part of games, and so on.
They had something they called "playing dolphins" where they would stand in waist-deep water, jump forward, and glide as far as they could before standing up again. She only needed one round of that course before she could advance to swimming for real. I suggest spending time just getting them used to water, getting splashed in the face, or playing with floating or sinking toys in waist-deep water, to quickly get over any blocking fear of water. I liked how the new school didn't even attempt to introduce real strokes at the beginner level, but instead gave the kids confidence in their own abilities to move in water.
That echoes my own upbringing. When I was very young, 4 or 5, my parents tried to get me to learn to swim using traditional methods and utterly failed and left me slightly terrified of water.
The summer when I was 5, my brother (an excellent competitive swimmer in his youth) brought me to a pool and we played a game called "jump and I'll try to catch you" and in the course of a couple hours of him moving to deeper and deeper water and farther away from the edge I basically figured out how to doggy paddle to him. By the end of that summer my brother had me fetching coins from the bottom of a 3 meter pool from a steady tread.
Only then did he start to teach me any formal strokes, but to be honest, because of how he taught me, I think of swimming as a perfectly natural activity like walking, where I decide where to go and at what depth and my body simply figures out how to get there. Specific strokes and techniques don't really play much part.
One thing I didn't mention was that when my daughter finally started swimming, she would swim underwater until she ran out of air and then stand up. The traditional school would never have allowed this, as you were supposed to breaststroke with your head above water at all times. Since she started to swim some distance underwater, it wasn't that much of a stretch for her to stay at the surface to swim longer distances.
The transition from dolphin to swimming underwater to swimming at the surface was very quick and seamless. Perhaps she was still helped by being drilled in the traditional school's proper technique, but I think we could have used the new school's methods from the start.
Yeah, that all sounds very similar. Once I figured out how to move in water, I tended to do what your daughter does, swim under the water and surface for air. I still like swimming that way.
It's interesting that people I know who went through a very formal swimming program as youths and then think of swimming as exercise and laps, tend to struggle with below-the-surface activities, like diving for items.
I remember my brother had a whole slew of underwater games we used to play like "tea time", "hold your breath at the bottom the longest", "headstand", "underwater flips", "drag your friend while they're underwater while you run in a race", "pull a gallon of dirt off the bottom", "upside-down Buddha" and so on including some pretty intense and dangerous-ish horseplay. There's probably a more comprehensive list somewhere as he didn't invent all of these but learned them elsewhere. Looking back I realize that we learned breath control, buoyancy control, how to handle strange orientations and direction underwater, diving, getting accustomed to handling stale air or out of air situations. But it all happened naturally through play.
Growing up, the only other kids I knew who could do the same kind of things also learned in similar informal ways built around play.
I'm from New Zealand, and I'm shocked at how bad some people are at swimming. I'd understand somebody in Kansas or the middle of Australia being bad at swimming, but New Zealand is an island nation, 75% of the population lives within 10 km (6 miles) of the sea.
A significant proportion of people couldn't swim 250 m or tread water for 10 minutes.
I'm always surprised to learn that learning to swim isn't the norm in other developed countries.
Unfortunately, ill-advised budget cuts mean that even here in the Netherlands (a country with a lot of surface water) swimming is no longer a standard part of the school curriculum in some municipalities (it used to be pretty much mandatory).
I have a friend who worked as a diving instructor on the Gili Islands in Indonesia for a few months. He said that a lot of the local guys who would drive the boats couldn't swim, they also obviously didn't wear life jackets.
Well, I'm always surprised at how people seem to assume that just living by the sea should somehow make people learn to swim?
I probably went to the sea (the Atlantic, in France) and played in water every other day or so during summer and autumn for most of my life until I had to move away as an adult, but that didn't magically teach my how to swim. I had to learn later. And I still hate swimming.
I don't think that living next to the sea would make you magically learn how to swim, but rather that everybody should be taught to swim to a competent level.
If you live next to the sea, you're going to be spending time around and on the water. It follows that you should learn how to survive in the water if something goes wrong. What if you get caught in a rip, or if someone else gets in trouble in the water and you have to help them? What if you're in a dingy and it capsizes?
The college I went to required students to demonstrate the ability to tread water for 5 minutes and do a few lengths of the pool (form didn't count). They strongly urged a remedial class in swimming for those who failed this test in freshman year.
It's amazing how quickly young children can learn to swim. My daughter went from disliking the water to swimming 200m with perfect technique within a couple years.
Learning to tumble made me laugh, but is a good idea :)
Learning to fall is a hugely beneficial asset. It's how skateboarders are able to get up, over and over. First thing you learn is how to fall properly, without seriously injuring yourself. It will happen, but being able to roll away, or bail correctly is essential.
Genuine question, is swimming not already taught in schools where you are? In the UK we take swimming lessons at primary school age, and usually this entails passing a Watership certification, which includes treading water for a minute with your clothes on etc.
* I don't care/want them to be Olympic swimmers but if they fall in a pool or river, I want them to be able to tread water and get out without panicking.
* Despite everything I say and do, they're going to get on the roof. I know, I did. ;) So when they fall, I want them to fall the best way possible.
As a parent, I don't see my job to protect them from all consequences but to prevent and/or prepare them for the worst.