3 ways to make swimming extra fun

Whether your children love trips to the pool or need persuading to get into the water, there are plenty of ways to make swimming extra fun that the whole family can enjoy. By encouraging your kids to play games, take on challenges, or even become their favourite sea-dweller, you can help them to build on any skills and confidence that they already have.

Here, we share our favourite ways to make swimming extra fun. Just be prepared to have to bribe your children to get out of the pool when you try them!

Play games in the pool

A great way to make swimming extra fun is to play games in the water. There are loads of possibilities which involve being creative, and children can improve on their swimming skills too. For example, asking kids to imitate their favourite underwater animals is a great way to get them used to being below the surface, and encourages them to use their imaginations too. With so many different animals to choose from, including sharks, dolphins, eels, and even frogs, children will love the fact that you have to guess what they’re trying to be!

If you’re going to a swimming pool that allows you to play with a ball, piggy in the middle is a fun game that siblings and parents can play together. This is a particularly good game for children who need to get used to being splashed, and can help with motor skills and co-ordination too. Alternatively, getting younger children to ‘talk to the fish’ will also help them to become comfortable with having their face in the water. In this game, the child should blow bubbles in the pool to ‘talk’ and then place their ear on the surface to ‘listen’ to the replies. As this is the same motion that is used to breathe when swimming, they’ll become more comfortable with this technique which will help them in the future.

Set swimming pool challenges

Competitive children will love the chance to show off their skills in the swimming pool, so setting challenges is a great way to get them to practice without them even realising that you’re testing them. If you have more than one child, or they’re swimming with their friends, challenging them to a race is the easiest option. A simple race can be carried out regardless of whether they need a float or armbands, or if they can swim independently. Alternatively, confident swimmers might prefer an underwater race. Should your child be swimming solo, you can set them a challenge against the stopwatch by either giving them a target or getting them to beat their previous times.

Collecting weights, or other heavy objects, from the bottom of the swimming pool will help to build your child’s confidence underwater. Start off in slightly shallow water if they’re not used to swimming to the bottom of the pool, otherwise they might end up feeling frustrated and won’t enjoy the challenge at all. This can also be made into a scavenger hunt if you have a number of different objects that they can collect and then tick off of a list.

Swimming pool dress-up

What better way to make swimming extra fun than to dress-up in a fabulous outfit? Although typical fancy dress outfits might not be swimming pool safe, mermaid tails offer the perfect opportunity to get mythical and try a whole new method of swimming. Completely safe for use in water, mermaid tails help children to imitate being their #1 fantasy creature, and come in a whole range of colours meaning that your child can choose their favourite.

If you don’t think that your child is quite ready to morph into a mermaid with their very own tail, you might prefer to start them off with mermaid leggings instead. Designed to be worn both in and out of the water, these leggings boast the same beautiful mermaid fin pattern and allow children to swim just as easily as they would in their normal costume.

Now that you know how to make swimming extra fun, it’s time to start planning your next trip to the pool. Should you wish to help your child to turn into a mermaid, take a look at our gorgeous range of mermaid tails and leggings – we guarantee that once they change into these they won’t want to leave the water!