Taking your child to swimming lessons sounds simple enough. Swimsuit, towel, goggles. Done.
Then you actually start doing it every week.
You discover the goggles that pull their hair, the child shivering while you’re trying to get everything back into the bag, the wet towel soaking everything it touches and, of course, arriving at the changing room without a pair of pants.
After plenty of swimming lessons, I’ve learned that you really don’t need to take half the house with you. But a few well-chosen things can make the whole experience much easier.
Here’s what I’d actually pack.
1. Comfortable swimwear
This is the obvious starting point, but comfort really matters.
Your child is going to spend their lesson moving, kicking, climbing in and out of the pool and generally putting their swimwear through its paces. You want something that stays where it should without digging in, rubbing or constantly needing to be adjusted.
For children who really feel the cold, it’s also worth considering thermal swimwear. A child who’s cold is unlikely to be concentrating on perfecting their kicking technique – they’re mostly thinking about how cold they are.
The right swimwear won’t magically make them love every swimming lesson, but being warm and comfortable certainly helps.
2. Goggles they can put on themselves
This is a bigger deal than it sounds.
Traditional goggles can mean fiddling with straps, pulling hair and constantly asking a parent or swimming teacher for help. I much prefer goggles that children can simply put on and take off themselves.
A soft, wider strap makes that much easier. There’s no hair getting caught in thin rubber straps, they’re comfortable around the head, and children can quickly pull them on when it’s time to get in the pool and take them off again afterwards.
That little bit of independence is useful during lessons too. If their goggles come off or need adjusting, they don’t have to wait for an adult to sort them out.
For me, good children’s goggles should do three things: stay on, feel comfortable and be easy enough for your child to manage themselves.
3. A proper towel
Nothing groundbreaking here: take a towel.
But a good swimming towel is one of those things you’ll appreciate every single week. I like one that’s properly absorbent but doesn’t take up most of the swimming bag – particularly when you’re carrying kit for more than one person.
Get them properly dry as soon as they’re out of their wet swimwear, especially if they’re one of those children who seems to start shivering approximately three seconds after leaving the pool.
And then comes my next essential…
4. A hooded poncho
I see the towel and poncho as doing two different jobs.
The towel gets them dry. The poncho gets them warm, covered and out of the door.
Once they’re dry, you can quickly pull a hooded poncho over their head rather than trying to get them immediately dressed from head to toe in a busy changing room.
This is especially useful after evening lessons. Sometimes you don’t need a leisurely changing-room experience. You need warm, dry, home.
Get the poncho on, gather up the swimming kit and head to the car.
They’re also brilliant for outdoor swimming and beach trips, when having something warm to throw straight over them is even more useful.
5. A water bottle
Swimming is exercise, even when it doesn’t necessarily look like it from the viewing area.
Children can be thirsty after a lesson, so it’s worth having a water bottle ready for afterwards.
Nothing fancy required. Just one more thing that’s much easier to have in the bag than realise you need once you’ve left the pool.
6. Something for all the wet stuff
This is something you probably only need to forget once.
Put a wet bag or simple waterproof bag inside the swimming bag for wet swimwear.
Otherwise, the wet costume goes in with everything else and somehow manages to make every single item in the bag damp – including the things that seemed nowhere near it.
If you’re using a wet bag, just remember to empty it when you get home. We’ve probably all discovered forgotten swimming kit in a bag later than we would have liked.
And the thing I always double-check…
Underwear.
It’s tiny. It’s obvious. And it’s incredibly annoying when you realise you haven’t brought any.
Keeping a spare pair permanently in the swimming bag isn’t a bad idea. The same goes for a spare pair of socks if your child wears them home.
My swimming lesson checklist
So, before heading out of the door, my actual checklist is:
- Comfortable swimwear
- Goggles
- Towel
- Hooded poncho
- Water bottle
- Wet bag
- Underwear
- Socks
That’s really it.
You don’t need every swimming accessory going. For me, it’s about choosing the things that remove some of the little annoyances: swimwear they’re comfortable in, goggles they can manage themselves, something to get them properly dry and something warm you can quickly throw over them afterwards.
Those small things can make the whole routine feel a lot easier.
And they’re a big part of why I started Comfy Kids Swim. I’ve tried to bring together swimming products that solve the little problems I’ve experienced myself as a parent – because getting children swimming is brilliant.
Getting them swimming without the battles, shivering and changing-room chaos is even better.