Now that the holiday season is upon us and the temperature outside is getting cold, inside at the Hubbard Family Swim Schools – in Phoenix, Peoria, and Mesa – the temperature of the heated, indoor swimming pools is 90 degrees all year long and a growing number of parents are signing their babies and children up for weekly swim lessons. Many grandparents are also purchasing winter swim lessons as a special holiday gift for their grandchildren because teaching a child how to swim is a gift that truly lasts a lifetime.
Winter is a great time to enroll children in swim lessons because it gets them all prepared and ready for safe swimming this summer when they’ll want to spend a lot of time swimming outdoors with their family and friends. Swim lessons during the winter are not only terrific exercise and a lot of fun, but we also want to make sure that children learn how to swim and are always safe around water. Our basic philosophy is this: Children everywhere must learn how to swim. Learning to swim should not be a choice.
– Bob Hubbard, co-owner of the Hubbard Family Swim Schools
Children who learn how to swim are also demonstrating more advanced cognitive and physical abilities than other children, according to world-leading research led by Griffith University in Australia. Their 2013 findings of a four-year study indicate that swimming children have an advantage when starting school. Swimming children scored significantly better than the normal population on a number of measures that are really important for their transition to school – their cognitive development, language development, and their physical development. The study surveyed 7,000 parents from Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., over three years, as well as individually assessing 180 children.
The study showed that children’s fine motor skills and overall coordination were more developed as a result of taking swim lessons and it showed that children who start lessons early were more socially and emotionally ready to start school.
Hubbard Family Swim School offers lessons to children 8 weeks to 12 years of age. There are even FREE “baby splash” swim classes for babies 8 weeks to 5 months of age. Parent participation in the water is required. These fun-filled, 30-minute water acclimation classes give parents or caregivers a chance to learn excellent tips on how to enjoy tub time at home with baby and also learn how to prepare baby for swim lessons. There are several different baby splash class times offered throughout the week. Advanced registration is required.
“Our popular baby splash classes give parents – especially dads – an excellent way to spend quality time with their babies in the water,” adds Hubbard. “Their swim class together is wonderful ‘bonding’ time and then after the class, the babies always enjoy a nice, long nap.”
To register for a class, call (602) 971-4044. For more information, visit www.hubbardswim.com
