Let’s Go Swimming!

The Olympic Swimming Trials are being held in Omaha right now.   It is a great time to spark kid’s interest in the sport of swimming. Watching the trials as a family can not only build excitement about the upcoming Olympics, but remind your future Olympian that splashing around in the pool could lead to much more! Here are some of our favorite swimming activity posts celebrating all things splashy…

Kids’ Swimming Activities:

1. Teaching Kids to Swim:   Check out SwimToday.org for local swimming lesson resources for not only kids, but adults.   They also have published the Swimming Olympic Trial TV schedule so that you can follow along on NBC June 25 “ July 2.
2. Positive Exposure to Water:   This is a really fun post from Go Kid Yourself about how an afternoon at the pool turned into a DIY swimming lesson.   I love how it reminds us all that swimming is FUN!
3. Water Treasure Chest:   Quirky Momma, Stacy writes over at Melissa & Doug’s blog about some fun water toys.   This one caught my attention since my boys have taken swimming lessons for years with a teacher who uses a similar “treasure chest” to hold his underwater toys.   These toys seem to have special powers that can ONLY be seen underwater.   To fully explore what they look like, the boys have willingly been putting their faces in the water to explore.
4. Fun Pool Games:Sense of Wonder has some games to play in/out of the water next time you go to the pool.   I love the imagination play.
5. Tips for Swimming with the under 3 crowd:Multiple Mummy goes swimming with TWO toddlers.   The fun is infectious!
6. Poolside snacks:   Quirky Momma, Deirdre, creates a muffin-tin lunch fit for an Olympian.   My favorite part was the teddy bears floating in yogurt on inter-tubes.
7. Beginner Swimming Techniques:   Cheerios & Lattes has a blog series about teaching kids proper swimming techniques.
8. Fear of the Water:   I loved this post by Deirdre {a Quirky Momma and author of JDaniel4’s Mom} about how she has tried not to pass on her fear of the water to her son.   Her honesty in letting us peek into her introspection is such an encouragement to fellow moms cheering on beginning swimmers.
9. Pool Scrabble:   Quirky Momma, Kristina, recently posted this awesome idea – playing Scrabble in the pool?
10. Make a Water Scope:   Milk and Cuddles thought of a creative way to take the fear out of water.
11. First swimming lesson:   Old School is still a technique for learning to swim!   Love this from Glittering Muffins.

Let’s go swimming tomorrow after watching the 2012 U.S. Olympic Team Trials tonight! The Quirky Mommas are excited to be working with The Motherhood and USA Swimming toward the goal of teaching EVERY child to swim.   Please follow along with us on Twitter with the #SwimToday hashtag.