INFANT WATERPLAY At the Wakatipu Swim School, our Infant WaterPlay programme is intended for infants from 6 months to 3 years. Infants attend the classes with a parent, who is shown by our instructors how to teach their child in the water.
In The beginning...The youngest swimmers must be at least 6 months old. This pre-requisite is to enable the child's immune system to develop well before the child is exposed to a public pool environment. We strongly recommend starting a water programme from birth in the bath at home. Check out some Bathtime Ideas here and start your infant on the path towards life long aquatic skills which could save their lives.
Building confidence in new swimmers is very important. We encourage our parents to spend time preparing their young swimmer for lessons, visiting the pool, meeting the instructor and watching some lessons. We believe it is important not to force a hesitant swimmer into the water, because at the first lesson, she is not only required to gain her confidence in the water and a new environment, but also in an unfamiliar instructor. Allow confidence to grow at the child’s pace and you will have a much happier swimmer.
Our parents do accompany their infants in the water. We will encourage participation at the child's level and guide you in the activities to help you both to have fun.
Class Size Our small and secluded pool environment offers very few distractions and allows for maximum attention for the 30 minute lessons. Our class size is limited to 4 infants and their parent.
Achievements and Certificates The aim of our programme is for the infants to work towards achieving independent swimming. This early independence includes being happy in the water, confidently initiating submersion, and propelling self through the water. All swimmers are awarded a report card at the end of each block. The report card identifies for you the skills we are working towards and the progress your infant is making, with some comments from the instructor. If the skills for the certificate are all mastered, your swimmer will be presented with a laminated Fairy Penguin certificate to keep.
The Programmes All our classes are programmed for the individual swimmer, and our programme is continuously evaluated and reviewed to provide the best possible environment for learning to have fun and play in the water safely. Floats and backpacks are not used in our infant sessions as we believe it is important for the parent to have a very 'hands on' approach with their infants in the water. This enables both the parent and child to build their confidence in each other while in the water.
Water Safety is an integral part of our lessons and is integrated into the class activities. As the infants get older and stronger the watersafety activities become more focused and quite particular.
What to Bring Swimming pants or nappies which are firm fitting around the leg to prevent leakage into the pool. In the event of a bowel motion, please leave the pool to change the infant's swim nappy before returning to the class.
T-shirt for parent to wear in the pool.
Snacks and a fresh water drink after the lesson to replace the energy and fluid used during the lesson. Please respect our environment and use the rubbish bins provided for your leftovers and wrappers.
Extra dry towels to lay your infant on while changing for pre-walking infants.
Spare pair of swimming nappies is always a safe backup incase of bowel motion while in the pool. Nappies may not be re-used in this instance.
INDEPENDENT WATERPLAY What is it? Our Independent WaterPlay programme is the link between the Infant WaterPlay sessions and our Preschool Learn to Swim classes. Infants who are over 2 years old may be ready for our Independent WaterPlay classes, which are a gentle and natural way to move the swimmer towards being independent in the water and ready to participate in a class without the parent in the water.
The Programmes Our aim is to teach the toddler how to be independent in the water through walking in the water, gaining balance, building confidence in the instructor as their teacher and providing a range of activities which are closely linked to the bubblefish classes in the Preschool Learn to Swim Programme. We are also aiming to give the parent the confidence to allow their child to be independent in the water by showing them a new range of safe activities to experiment with together in the pool. Children do not need to be able to swim to join this programme. The pool depth is perfect for building confidence, and we work from the steps and noodles too :)
Register Now for Infant WaterPlay or Infant WaterPlay and we will confirm class times after payment has been received.
Payment in advance is required, see our Payment Policy for details.
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