The best thing you can do to teach your children how to swim and be comfortable around water is for you to expose them to water as much as possible. Also your experiences with swimming play a huge role in how they are going to feel about swimming.

If they are really afraid or timid here are some things to try:

Use sponges in the pool and play catch, this gets their faces wet with out them even knowing it! They are having such a great time they forget they are learning!

Have them blow a ping pong ball or other small floating object around in the pool. This gets their mouth close to the water.

Play games: Ring Around The Rosie and use the words "all go under" at the end.

Teach them how to hold their breath, full cheeks of air. With proper breath holding there is no need to hold your nose! :)

Once they have mastered breath holding and can go under.... have them open their eyes under water and count how many fingers you are holding up under there! Or even use money.. see how many coins they can find.

If they are really timid about the water let them use floaties or life jackets when you are teaching them.

If you can not get to the pool a lot use the bathtub! This is a great place to try out breath holding and going under the water.

The most important thing is to create a safe learning environment where they can build up their confidence level!

Remember: Sometimes it takes several swim lesson sessions (meaning several two week lessons) for a student to start feeling confident enough to try and go under the water. Once they do though it is so awesome! They just start to take off, kind of like when they first learn to sound out words and start to read. :)

I hope these suggestions will help you with teaching your children to swim and again the best thing you can do is get them close to water as often as you can!

Always point out how hunters love to kill Bambi or any other animal featured in a cartoon or movie. Also point out how hunters and people illegally carrying weapons in their vehicles are vandals that shoot up highway signs and other things.

Teach them how to scream and yell for parents and the police anytime they see anything that looks like a gun, even if it is just a toy or a b-b gun.

If you have to handle a gun, for any reason, make sure you wash your hands (or even better, take a shower) while explaining to your children how even touching a gun is dangerous and unclean. Explain guns are a part of our prehistoric, primitive past, and not part of real life.

Change the channel anytime a gun is shown in a movie, unless it is a policeman using it.

When you see a dead animal on the highway, speculate if it was actually shot before cars hit it, or if it was fleeing from a hunter.

The most important thing is to create a safe learning environment where they can build up their level of fear of firearms!

Remember: Sometimes it takes several lesson sessions (meaning several two week lessons) for a student to learn to properly reject guns. Boys may be harder to get to give up games with play guns, but it can be done Once they do though it is so awesome! They just start to take off, kind of like when they first learn to sound out words and start to read. Soon, they will be joining you in writing letters urging politicians to make guns illegal. :)

The best thing you can do to teach your children how to use and be comfortable around firearms is for you to expose them to firearms as much as possible. Also your experiences with weapons play a huge role in how they are going to feel about guns.

If they are really afraid or timid here are some things to try:

Let them watch you as you care for your weapons, including cleaning and loading. Make sure they understand that a weapon is ALWAYS assumed to be loaded and how to check.

Let them go with you and watch you do target shooting and shooting practice. (Make sure they have good ear and eye protection, of course.) Go with them to professional shooting events.

Make sure if they play games with toy guns or objects serving as guns that they understand the difference and treat the toys with the same respect they would a real gun.

Teach them not to touch an unknown gun, but to keep other children from handling it and to go get (or send for) an adult.

Once they have mastered inspecting a weapon for ammo and how to set a firearm to safe, have them handle weapons of various types under your direct supervision. At a range, have them practice dry-firing, just as if there were really ammo in the weapon.

Point out when guns are used well, to prevent crime, save someone’s life, hunting for food, and other important actions. Also point out when guns are misused in crime, including vandalism, threatening, and harming innocent people. Point out that the user, not the tool, is the key.

If they are really timid about guns, have them start out with “replica” guns for dry-firing and drill when you are teaching them. Find well-trained children of a similar age to show that they can learn how, and that guns can be safe when handled properly.

If you can not get to a regular range, use a b-b gun or air-pistol in your basement or other safe place. This is a great way to teach them the fundamentals.

The most important thing is to create a safe learning environment where they can build up their confidence level!

Remember: Sometimes it takes several shooting lesson sessions for a student to start feeling confident enough to try shooting on a regular basis. Once they do though it is so awesome! They just start to take off, kind of like when they first learn to sound out words and start to read. And they will gain confidence in themselves and their future, because they will know how to protect themselves and others.:)