Here at Online Pool Chemicals we love swimming pools – that much should be obvious! We think paddling is great, swimming lengths is fun and floating on a lilo is even better. We also think it’s a great activity for kids.

Here’s 10 reasons why.

1.       Emotional Benefits

Did you know that swimming can help improve your child’s mental health and well-being? A report from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has claimed that swimming can improve your mood and decrease anxiety levels.

2.       Exercise

Swimming is great exercise! Child obesity is higher than ever making exercise more important than ever. Swimming provides stretching and toning exercises, and even a full body workout. All of this will help keep your child fit and active, while strengthening their lungs and heart. This is a low impact exercise so is gentle on the body. And it can be done by all ages, so you could be messing around in the pool together and your children won’t even realise they are exercising! It is also great for people recovering from injuries or suffering from prolonged illnesses thanks to its gentle properties.

3.       Health Benefits

Swimming is also a beneficial exercise for children who suffer from health issues such as arthritis and asthma. Children are less likely to suffer an asthma attack when swimming than doing other exercise, and the moist air helps their breathing. Whereas it may help those with conditions such as arthritis as it is a low impact exercise.

4.       Safety Benefits

Sadly, every year dozens of children drown. The chance of this can be decreased if a child is familiar with water and is able to swim. It is important for children to feel comfortable and have positive experiences with water. Learning to swim may even save someone else’s life one day.

5.       Low Cost

Swimming in the sea is completely free and during school holidays many leisure centres will offer free or discounted swimming for children. This makes swimming a low cost activity to keep your little ones busy.

6.       Basic Life Skill

Learning to swim is a basic life skill – it’s up there with learning to ride a bike and how to read a book. These are all things that most children will be taught at a young age that they will use for the rest of their life. Learning to swim can also be a great bonding experience creating lovely memories.

7.       Competitiveness

Once your child can swim, entering them into a swimming gala or competition can, like any sport, teach them the importance of healthy competitiveness. This can also give them aspirations and the desire to improve their skills.

8.       Social Skills

Swimming lessons are a great way for children to meet other people their own age outside of the school environment. This can help children make friends and teach them valuable social skills such as communication.

9.       Improve Schoolwork

Studies have been found that swimming can be linked to better academic performance. Learning to swim when a child is young can help mental and physical milestones be achieved faster. The skills used and developed when learning how to swim are the same ones used when learning in school, so early development of these can improve learning later on.

10.   It’s fun!

So will you be taking the kids down your local leisure centre this summer and teaching them how to swim? Make sure to take a look at our blogs on when and how to introduce children to the water!   (images: Wikipedia)