Water has always been a big part of my mother’s life.

She spent summer after summer at her neighborhood pools. When she was old enough she became a lifeguard. Throughout my mother’s life she has encountered many children who had no idea how to swim. Something had to change and she felt that she could make a difference.

My mother got her undergraduate degree from Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD where she took lifeguarding and water safety instruction. She began teaching swimming at 18 for the Red Cross Learn-to-Swim program. After completing college, she taught for only three years before going into the private sector, but made sure she ran and stayed fit. Ultimately, she returned to teaching more than 20 years later. She was able to get her Lifeguard, First-Aid, AED, Lifeguard Instructors, and Water Safety Instructor certifications, which she maintained until the present.

Early childhood water activities

When I was little I used to love playing in the bathtub. Before I was two years old my mother would have me practice exhaling in the bathtub water. She bought me some colorful stick-on numbers, shapes, and letters which she placed in the bathroom on the tub wall. This became our little nightly play area.

By the age of two, I could call out all the numbers from 1-10, name all the colors and shapes on the bathtub, as well as exhale underwater while kicking to the count of ten. I was only two years old, and was already prepared to be in an actual pool.

Reasons children don’t know how to swim today

There are many reasons why children don’t know how to swim today. These reasons include: a fear of water, parents who are fearful of water and are scared for their children to learn, swimming was never important for them to learn, bad experiences, or just not having access to do so.