After speaking with a parent following the summer about swimming lessons, I felt this was an opportunity to visit the topic - “Why take swimming lessons in the fall or winter.” Returning a call to the parent and explaining we were starting a new session of lessons this fall and had room for her 6-year-old the parent replied, “Well, I don’t want her to take lessons when it’s cold out!”
Think about it parents, children have no swimming lessons all fall, winter and spring. Summer comes, the pool opens, the hot weather is upon us and the children want to get right in the pool because it’s hot out. PROBLEM - THEY CAN’T SWIM! This is the sole reason why the drowning rates between the months of June and August increases over 90%. Not 5%, not 10%, not 50%, upwards to 90%!
HUMMMMM……. If lessons were done in the off-season, children would be already prepared to enjoy the summer, swim with supervision and the drowning rates would not increase to an outrageous level.
If it is cold out, what do you do, bundle up! If you’re worried about catching a cold because of a wet head, wear a hat! I do not blow dry my hair before leaving the pool. I have a wet head all winter long. My solution for the wet head - A Big Furry Insulated Hat! Can’t feel the cold at all. Plus gloves, scarves, and buttoning up coats do help.
Just to prove my point, a mother who has taken swimming lessons with her 2 boys throughout the winter months asked me how she could keep her and her boys from getting sick/catching a cold in the dead of winter. I told her very simply - BUNDLING UP!!!!! Mom did not have a problem from swimming lessons; now school germs, that’s a whole other subject.
I guess my long-winded answer is, just like anything else, think. Dress warmly, cover your head, use a scarf, and wear gloves. Do you think Michael Phelps as a child in Maryland stop swimming in the winter to become a Gold Medal Athlete?
