5 year old prevents sister from drowning

Isn't that a positive headline? I think it's great! Here's a link to the story. What a wonderful little boy! He couldn't get his sister out of the pool alone, but he was able to keep her head above water until mom showed up to help.

One of the first things you can do as a parent in Quebec is take your little one to swimming lessons at a very young age. Children LOVE to play in water. The more swimming lessons they attend, the more they become aware of water safety and the least likely you are to have one of your precious offspring drown. Also my reasoning is that there aren't tons of activities you can do with a very young child, but taking them to swimming lessons and swimming with them is something fun for both.

I took mine to swimming lessons around 8 months old to a mom-tot swimming lesson. I used to enjoy it. You teach your baby how to hold his breath to go under water!  The only scare I had was when the youngest was  2 1/2. We were at the company pool and I had the presence of mind to keep her swimming belt on her around the pool at all times, even when she wasn't in the water.  Originally the belt had 4 floaters, and I would remove them as the child swam more and more on her own.  It gave the children a sense of swimming alone without risking of drowning, of course under adult supervision.

Well one fine summer day, with a belt with just one floater left she ran, tripped and fell into the pool. I was just a few feet away and by the time I reached her, barely 1 minute later,  she was pulling herself out of the pool a little shaken.  Because she had her floater and knew how to swim well with it,  she took her head out of the water, caught her breath and proceeded to reach the side to climb out.

Of course the same daughter now is a lifeguard at the DDO civic centre and has already taught a whole slew of kids water safety, and trained all the current staff!