<p>Hello, all! I know since you guys had young kids, you’d be a wealth of advice. I’m going along as a nanny for the family I babysit next weekend to Indianapolis, where I’ll be watching a four year old girl and a five year old boy for three days while the parents are at a tournament. I’m planning on taking them to the children’s museum there and an under the ocean IMAX movie, but the hotel also has a pool, which I’m sure they’ll want to spend lots of time in.</p>
<p>What do you DO in a pool with two preschoolers who will be wearing “floaties”? Obviously they won’t be swimming laps and can’t really play the “dive for the quarter” game with floaties on, so does anyone know of any fun preschool pool games?</p>
<p>Simon says!
Get one kid on one side of the pool, one kid on the other. Put a splash ball in the middle and have them race to get it.
You can try “Capture the splash ball” but I don’t know how successful that’d be.</p>
<p>If they are in a kiddie pool, they can still play dive for the quarter but just pick the object up with their toes. Toes always make things funnier.</p>
<p>I’m sure this goes without saying…but the main thing you do is you never take your eyes off them! That’s a challenging age to supervise in a pool. Teach them to monkey crawl on the side of the pool. And if they can kick and propel, teach them how to get to the side of the pool – good skills to have.</p>
<p>I don’t think you have to plan much, since just being in the water is a thrill for them. I say this as a parent with a pool at home, and memories of many many many years with young children in the pool. Our house rule was that if we had a nonswimmer kid in the pool who could not stand in the pool with their head above water level, one adult was in the pool standing near the child. </p>
<p>Noodles are great. Water guns. Big sponges. Family Fun magazine used to have all sorts of great ideas for pool games, like races where you have to push a floating toy or balloon along with your nose. Also, drawing a line down the middle of the pool, putting a bunch of light floaty things in, and having to toss them onto the other side, one kid on each side. Maybe that last one is a remarkably bad idea if other people are around in the pool Horsie rides, of course.</p>
<p>I hope you are a trained swimmer, and even better, if you’re lifesaving certified. Have the children had swimming lessons? Is there a lifeguard on duty? All questions that the parents, I would hope, have considered. :)</p>
<p>When my kids were that age, I would never have let them go swimming with a babysitter, and they both could swim without floaties. There will probably not be a lifeguard on duty at the hotel pool. No offense to the OP, but my recommendation is that you do not take them swimming. As another poster pointed out, it only takes a few seconds for something tragic to occur. Find something fun to do on dry land.</p>
<p>I agree with the other posters: little kids will find their own ways to have fun in the pool. If they are bored, time to get out and have some dry land fun. Your job is to keep an eye on them ALL THE TIME! Their little arm floaties are not life-saving devices.</p>
<p>To get my then-small, non-swimming kid to learn to go underwater, oh, so long ago, we played “Big Foot.” I would lift my straight leg up, showing my toes, and chant, “I’ve got a big foot! Iiiiii’ve got a big foot!” and then drop it back to the bottom of the pool. </p>
<p>He would dive underwater – this was in the shallow end, of course, where he could easily stand – to try to grab my foot. If he succeeded, he’d lift it up and toss me backwards. I always made a big show of the dunking I got, of course!</p>
<p>Then I had to try to get him; I didn’t get to dunk him back, since he was smaller than I.</p>
<p>We played this silly game for years, long after he learned to swim, and had a blast with it. I don’t think he ever realized why we started playing this game.</p>
<p>Thank you SO much to everyone! I was more worried about my own sanity over three days with probably part of each day in the pool- having an actual game to play will pass the time and be more fun for all! </p>
<p>I do appreciate the safety tips as well- I have been swimming with these kids before, am a trained swimmer and had some water safety/rescue training for a scuba diving class. These kids are also very comfortable with the water, but I am definitely very conscious of the risks involved with small children and a pool. I will be at their side at ALL times, probably driving them nuts, but safety is more important!</p>
<p>I LOVE some of these game ideas! I’ll have to run to Target before we leave and find some fun pool toys! When I was this age, jumping from the edge into my dad’s arms was my favorite activity, but I’m a little too nervous about taking my eyes off one of them long enough to watch the other one closely enough to catch them. Whoever suggested Simon Says- that would be perfect! They LOVE it on land, so I can only imagine in water (Simon says blow bubbles, simon says do five jumping jacks in the water, etc) will be a huge hit!</p>
<p>I’m also planning plenty of dry land activities to keep us all from getting pruny too, even if I have to drag them out of the pool! For a four year old who wants to be a princess, I think a children’s theatre (only one hour- with snacks and juice!) production of Sleeping Beauty will be a big hit!</p>
<p>Thanks again to all! I’ll print this thread and take it with me!</p>
<p>Since you have the safety part covered, here is one more idea. Plastic cups. I don’t know why, but my kids loved dumping water into other containers.</p>
Horsie rides, of course.</p>