Learn to swim

Swimming training is recommended from around the age of five. This is when children are skilled enough to coordinate the swimming movements of their arms and legs correctly due to their development. Before that, however, you can get your child used to being in the water without fear. This is also considered sensible by the DLRG.

The first thing your child should do is lose their fear of water.

The best way to do this

• is to splash each other happily in the water
• bubble into the water with their mouth
• hold their head under water briefly
• dare to open their eyes under water.

Then you can slowly introduce your child to swimming.

Swimming aids such as water wings, life jackets and buoyancy aids are helpful for getting used to the water. Swimming noodles or swimming boards are more suitable for learning to swim properly. They can be borrowed from almost all swimming pools for a small deposit. But be careful - none of these aids offer any safety.

You should therefore never leave your child unattended in the water, even in shallow water, until they can swim safely!

It is not always easy for parents to correctly assess their children's swimming abilities. The swimming badges are a rough guide.

As a general rule, a child can swim if it

• swims in the water for at least fifteen minutes without stopping and holding on to the edge,
• dives safely and retrieves an object from a depth of two meters,
• jumps into the water from a height of one meter from the edge and swims on easily.

These are the skills that a child has when they achieve the "bronze badge". With the "Seepferdchen" as their first swimming badge, children are only "used to the water" but cannot yet swim safely, warns the DLRG. At this level, children still need to be supervised when swimming.

Many public swimming pools offer courses for the various swimming badges or water familiarization. The courses are usually run by specialist staff from the DLRG or the NRW Swimming Association.

Courses take place weekly during term time. In many cities, compact courses are also offered during the vacations.

The cost of swimming courses for children with basic and advanced training at the DLRG varies between 50.00 euros and 70.00 euros. Please enquire about the exact price on site.

Learning to swim should not be a question of money, however. The state of North Rhine-Westphalia promotes learning to swim with the state program "NRW can swim". The vacation swimming courses take place during the Easter, summer and autumn vacations and are aimed at pupils in years 1 - 6. The courses usually run for 10 days. A personal contribution of 10 euros can be charged. Ask at your local DLRG or at your child's school whether there is a corresponding offer in your area.

Parents who receive citizen's allowance, child supplement or housing benefit have the option of being reimbursed for the costs of the courses via the education and participation package. You can find detailed information on how to apply on the Familienportal.NRW.