Start the new year learning a skill for life

Enjoy the physical benefits of baby and toddler swimming with Water Babies this new year – the perfect activity for little ones and carers to experience together.

In toasty warm swimming pools, babies from birth to 5 years old will learn a skill for life, by understanding water safety, core aquatics skills, and swimming strokes in lessons. We’ll take your little one on a journey of aquatic discovery, helping to build a strong foundation of learning how to swim.

The benefits of baby swimming supports children as they grow, helping with their emotional, cognitive, and psychological development.

Swimming also has many physical benefits for the early years. It keeps heart rates up, builds endurance and muscle strength, and it gets little ones' limbs moving, so they have a little workout and they (and carers) can get some much needed shut eye!

Before your baby can crawl or walk, swimming can help them to move independently in a safe place. Water provides them with the opportunity to be adventurous and explore their balance, which will support them out of the water too.

The skills in lessons are structured to align with their key developmental milestones, such as:

• Reaching for a swim toy helps them with their hand eye coordination. These are called cross-lateral movements, which are actions to cross the midline of the body.
• Skills such as chasing and grasping hold of toys in the pool help with finer and smaller motor skills which occur in the wrists, hands, fingers, feet and toes.
• Bouncing and splashing in the water stimulates the vestibular system, aiding balance.

Not only this, but swimming strengthens little ones heart and lungs as well as their arm, leg and neck muscles. Swimming is also proven to help with little one's eating and sleeping patterns – which is a win for the whole family.

Start something new this year and enjoy all the benefits baby swimming can bring. Join the Water Babies family today and get ready to learn a skill for life.