Starting swimming lessons as a baby comes with many benefits including improved physical, emotional, social and cognitive development. It also sets a positive foundation towards a lifetime of participation and enjoyment in a variety of water sports and time spent on, in and under the water. On the whole, children who start swimming lessons early are far more relaxed and happy in the water, and in a country as water-loving as New Zealand, this is vital.

AUCKLAND: AUT Millennium Swim School offers young families a complete learn-to-swim pathway. From baby lessons through to elite training, we help students of all ages and abilities learn to swim in a safe, progressive and enjoyable environment. Our caring teachers are dedicated to helping swimmers build confidence, improve aquatic skills and water safety.

Parents often withdraw their kids from swimming classes in winter as a ‘precautionary measure’ each year as the temperature drops. When they return to swimming later in the year, not only have they missed out on the many benefits of swimming, they find that their kids still caught all the colds that went around. Check out these tips and keep your kids swimming throughout winter.

CHRISTCHURCH: Bumble Bees Swim School in Beckenham, Christchurch specialises in swimming lessons for babies, toddlers and preschoolers right through to school aged swimmers. We offer a comprehensive, planned and progressive swim programme, operating one swim class at a time with a maximum of 5 children in the pool to ensure they get ample teacher attention.

Swimming is an essential life skill and building water confidence is the first step when it comes to teaching your kids to swim. Water confidence is all about how comfortable your kids are in water. As a parent you can play a huge role in developing this confidence and teach them core water safety skills from an early age.

AUCKLAND, HAMILTON, HAVELOCK NORTH & PALMERSTON NORTH: At Hilton Brown Swimming our aim is simple – to provide a fun, safe and caring environment for children to learn to swim. Working with proven teaching methods that have been continuously fine-tuned since the school started in 1973, our highly-trained instructors aim to ensure a successful and enjoyable learning experience for everyone.

Water play can be a great source of fun and exercise for the whole family, but it can also be dangerous for kids if the proper water safety precautions are not taken. The good news is though there are many ways to keep children safe in and around water. Check out these helpful tips.

Learning to swim is such an important life skill for children to learn from a young age and having swimming lessons even before they start school is a great place to start. Here are some expert tips to help you navigate the process, from choosing a swim school and booking lessons to what you can expect from lessons, moving through progressions and everything in between.

SILVERDALE, AUCKLAND: Kids will enjoy our baby, toddler and preschool swimming lessons at the award winning Northern Arena Swim School in Silverdale, on Auckland's North Shore. Learning how to swim and survive is a key life skill in which everyone should invest for themselves, their children and their grandchildren. Northern Arena prides themselves on teaching every child the strength, ability, confidence and technique so that not only can they save themselves but potentially save the person they are swimming with.

There are many physical benefits of teaching babies to swim, as well as helping them to overcome their initial fear of water. Swimming helps babies physical progress later in life, along with providing them with some essential social skills.

**FEATURED** Do you want to teach your kids to swim and SAVE 20% OFF your SplashSave Parents Pack? Our SplashSave water safety programme has been put together with this mission in mind. A specially designed water safety programme for parents with young kids aged 0 – 7 years old, so they can take the lead when it comes to swimming and water safety education.

Water is an essential part of Kiwis identity and many under 5's grow up spending their holidays at the beach, fishing off the rocks, swimming in a pool or learning how to drive a boat. Yet according to Safekids Aotearoa, drowning is the leading cause of injury-related death among children between 1 and 4 years old.

Not only does teaching your kids how to float provide them with a strong foundation for learning to swim, it’s also one of the most important core water safety skills they can learn from an early age.

Swimming lessons can help babies develop an emotional bond through interaction with other children in their class and positive encouragement from their parents. Early swimming also fosters a growing sense of self-esteem, confidence, independence and as a child’s ability to freely move through the water increases - so does their sense of wellbeing.

A weekly swimming lesson is often a child’s first social experience out of the home that involves their peers. They learn to relate and interact with each other and look forward to seeing their classmates each week, and even watch them for cues when it comes to taking risks and learning something new. The best way for babies to learn is by example, and as they are with children their own age, a lot of fun goes along with it.

We are a culture that thrives on being able to spend time at play on our beaches and waterways, but we still need help when it comes to staying safe. Entering the water safely at an early age is a great way to begin, and the benefits of 'baby-friendly' swimming classes are unique, uplifting and contribute to the positive development of the whole child.