We’re buzzing about the start of the safe return of children’s activities. Participating in organised activities offers families many health and wellbeing benefits, whilst also supporting the social, emotional, physical and mental development of your child. We have all missed our favourite activities during lockdown. It’s only natural that you might feel a little nervous getting out and about, or a bit unsure of which activities might be best for your child at this time. To give you a little inspiration, we’ve put together some expert advice to give you some more information about why these activities are great for you and your child.

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Swimming

Why we love baby swimming…. We LOVE swimming, and we like to spread the swimming passion whenever possible. There are some fantastic benefits to baby swimming, and we hear lots of reasons why people come to us for swimming classes… lifesaving skills…making friends…parents that love water, and parents that can't swim…

We thought we would share some of our favourite swimming loves with you.

Exercise - Being in the water gives babies total freedom to paddle and kick those legs, resulting in great health benefits for your little one. Swimming helps with their brain development, increases their lung capacity, and increases their strength.
From tummy time on our big mat - for strengthening those neck muscles, to toddlers swimming on woggles! Most of our mummies and daddies will agree that it’s a great workout for them too!

Balance and Coordination - Norwegian and German studies on baby swimming both concluded improvement in balance, coordination, motor development, and intelligence compared to non-swimming babies.  It's not just fun chasing and reaching for our fish around the pool, it’s a brilliant activity for those motor skills!

Bonding - This is a great time to have some lovely one on one time with your baby. Swimming is a great activity for families, and what better way to bond with your baby, away from any daily stresses, than in one of our lovely warm pools.  We promote skin to skin activities for newborns, and our joint parent/baby swims are great for older babies, and sharing your toddler’s first solo standing jump can be such a special and precious time for our parents.

Water safety - Most of our parents and babies have such fun in the pool they don’t even notice all the great safety skills they are learning. (A great example of this is when we teach them to climb out, turn, hold on, and listen to instructions which are all valuable lifesaving skills).

Confidence - Great for your little ones confidence in the water and out. Our water confidence activities are used right from the start to help even the most nervous swimmers ease into our classes. Our Baby Squids teachers love to see the trust and confidence grow in our swimmers term after term, and we love to share your proud moments as they develop their abilities.

Social skills - Children’s social skills are developed in our swimming classes by making friends, and socialising with similar age groups. Our big mat solo jump is a great activity for your child to learn to wait and take it in turns.

TOP BENEFITS

Smiles
Vitally important that parents smile and create a warm connection during time spent in the water. Children learn from your reactions and are incredibly switched on, so lots of positive energy is perfect for future water confidence
Deep baths
From an early age create really deep baths that baby can move their body in, get in with them and have fun splashing around. You can lie them on their backs and singing twinkle twinkle whilst they float around is gorgeous for all involved!

Fun
Jumping, splashing and blowing bubbles are all great ways to introduce your baby to the fun of swimming. When they are really little floating around the pool is perfect but as they hit 6 months fun becomes a key factor in future water confidence.

Baby Squids

Everyone is welcome at Baby Squids! Our main aim is to make our pre-school and baby swimming lessons an inclusive, enchanting experience that gives your child vital life skills whilst they are having lots of fun!

Our passionate teachers love what they do and will help to guide parents through each child’s development at their own pace. We focus on a supportive and nurturing environment for children, parents and franchisees to develop their skills in. Find out more by visiting our website www.babysquids.co.uk

HOW WE ARE SAFE

Baby Squids thinks it is incredibly important to ensure all our venues and lessons are Covid secure. We also want to ensure that we support the parenting community to continue to use sensory and physical activities to support children and parents mental health and wellbeing. We have reduced numbers to support social distancing and increased cleaning. We have even added additional team members to ensure that all parents are guided through their lessons in the appropriate and Covid secure way.

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