With summer approaching, we are proud to share this sponsored post by Foss Swim School to help keep your kids safe in the water!
Foss Swim School is looking ahead to Water Safety Month!
Warm weather is on its way! Are your kids ready for swimming?
As summer approaches, it’s typical for families to start planning activities on the water – boating, lake days, and spending time at the pool. What families don’t expect, though, is a child falling into the water. Despite parents and guardians setting clear expectations and closely supervising, children still can fall into the water.
Drowning is silent and can happen in as little as 20-60 seconds.
The clock for safely getting out of the water starts ticking immediately after falling in, and it can happen to anyone, anywhere.
According to the National Drowning Prevention Alliance (NDPA), there are around 10 fatal drownings per day in the U.S. and an average of 4,000 per year. It’s also the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death for children ages 1-4 and remains a top 5 cause of accidental injury-related death for individuals up to 54. One of the ways to reduce the risk of drowning is by enrolling in formal swim lessons, as learning to swim can reduce the
risk by 88% for 1–4-year-olds.
Foss Swim School has helped hundreds of thousands of children across the Midwest become safer, more confident swimmers. The FOSS curriculum teaches developmentally appropriate safety skills at every age and ability level, creating more confident swimmers and parents and allowing families to enjoy the water together.
Next month is Water Safety Month, and FOSS wanted to share a story of how water safety skills were helpful for one of their young students. FOSS mom, Katie, was staying at a campground with her family. Her 4-year-old, Carter, was swimming in the pool with a floatation device. “I have a big fear of kids drowning, so Carter had been swimming wearing his puddle jumper,” said Katie.
After enjoying the pool, Carter’s dad brought him out for a bathroom break, removing his puddle jumper. Upon returning to the pool, Katie’s husband followed Carter in and turned his back to him to close the gate. In just seconds, Carter had jumped into the 5-foot-deep pool – he forgot he wasn’t wearing his floatation.
“I happened to look up and saw him face up in the pool,” said Katie. “I have always heard drowning is silent, but I didn’t know how silent. He didn’t make a peep.”
Fortunately, Carter was safe and completely unharmed. He flipped to his
back and swam to safety. He kept telling Katie, “I flip to my back, and then I
flip and swim. That’s what my teacher says.”
Flip to breathe is one of the first skills that students learn at Foss Swim School, and students need to pass that milestone before progressing to the next level. Thankfully, he had just mastered it during Water Safety Week, where students jump into the pool with their clothes on to share what it’s like to fall in unexpectedly.
Katie said, “I used to think for water safety, you learn to swim. I didn’t realize there were these simple skills outside of being able to swim across the pool.” She wouldn’t have seen him at the bottom, and it may have been too late for her husband to notice. When dealing with water, seconds and minutes are the difference between life and death.
This is just one of the many stories where students used their water safety skills to escape a scary situation safely. Often, kids don’t recognize the importance of their swimming skills and how they can save their lives. These moments remind parents that having fun in the water also means reducing water risks and how quickly and unexpectedly danger can appear.
It’s also a reminder for parents to ensure their kids are taught the proper steps to take should they end up in trouble in the water and practice in realistic situations.Make your child(ren) a more confident, safe swimmer today by enrolling them in once-a-week swim lessons or Swim Camps, just in time for summer! You can enroll bycreating a FOSS Family Account.
