Most parents, when they hear about infant swimming, have the same question: “Why does a child need it, especially at that age?” Baby swimming is not just teaching kids the basics of swimming. It should not even be considered as training, since using this word with toddlers for up to a year would be wrong. It is better to classify early swimming as one of the ways in which a child can develop.  

1. Cognitive functioning

Skin is a sensory organ. No other organ in our body receives as much information as the skin. When swimming in a pool, a person receives a colossal amount of information, only from the mere fact that they are in contact with the environment. When a child dives, he/she feels minimal movement, bubbles, noise in the showers, etc. This is the formation of nerve tissue and an indispensable factor in the development of the brain. This way, a child gets pure experience through signals to the brain.
Swimming increases lung capacity, which promotes blood flow to the brain. Swimming enriches the brain with oxygen and helps it gather more strength.  

2. Sleep and appetite  

Water relaxes and relieves stress, sleep becomes calmer and stronger. The nervous system is strengthened if we swim often. Also, a swimming pool or bath is a new environment for children, so they work harder to stay warm. This way they spend a lot of energy and burn a lot of calories, so their sleep and appetite become stronger.  

When swimming in a pool, a person receives a colossal amount of information, only from the mere fact that they are in contact with the environment.

3. Confidence

Psychologists say that a child, diving or swimming at a certain depth, overcomes the resistance of the water, develops traits such as purposefulness, perseverance, self-control, determination, discipline, and the ability to show independence. Children who swim from birth are more confident, sociable, and exhibit stronger leadership qualities.

4. Coordination and balance

Swimming relieves the load from the spine, eliminates non-natural and non-physiological movements.
Babies move freely and actively in the water. Overcoming water resistance contributes to the strengthening of all muscle groups and the development of joints. Therefore, children who swim from birth learn faster how to sit down, stand up, crawl, and walk.

Overcoming water resistance contributes to the strengthening of all muscle groups and the development of joints.

5. Speech development  

When exercising in the pool, fine motor skills of the hands develop, which is associated with the nervous system, vision, attention, and perception of the child. Scientists have proven that the development of fine motor skills and speech are closely related.

Breathing exercises, such as puffing out the cheeks and controlled breathing are additional speech therapy exercises and they help improve pronunciation in the future.  

Water is one of the best ways for the development of a child, it is gentle and very effective. It strokes the skin with optimal pressure, which improves blood circulation and strengthens the baby’s nervous system. Physical exercises that a child performs in water, starting from a very early age, contribute to an improved lung capacity while enriching the blood with oxygen.  

Be careful, though””newborns and infants should never be left alone near bathtubs or pools!

About the author: Ana Jevtić is a sinologist and language enthusiast. Coming from a bilingual family, Ana  developed a deep love for learning new languages and sharing her knowledge with others. Besides her daily job as a translator in a Chinese company, she spends her evenings teaching English to  children.

The post Benefits of Infant Swimming for Baby’s Development appeared first on Novak Djokovic Foundation.

Most parents, when they hear about infant swimming, have the same question: “Why does a child need it, especially at that age?” Baby swimming is not just teaching kids the basics of swimming. It should not even be considered as training, since using this word with toddlers for up to a year would be wrong. It is better to classify early swimming as one of the ways in which a child can develop.  

1. Cognitive functioning

Skin is a sensory organ. No other organ in our body receives as much information as the skin. When swimming in a pool, a person receives a colossal amount of information, only from the mere fact that they are in contact with the environment. When a child dives, he/she feels minimal movement, bubbles, noise in the showers, etc. This is the formation of nerve tissue and an indispensable factor in the development of the brain. This way, a child gets pure experience through signals to the brain.
Swimming increases lung capacity, which promotes blood flow to the brain. Swimming enriches the brain with oxygen and helps it gather more strength.  

2. Sleep and appetite  

Water relaxes and relieves stress, sleep becomes calmer and stronger. The nervous system is strengthened if we swim often. Also, a swimming pool or bath is a new environment for children, so they work harder to stay warm. This way they spend a lot of energy and burn a lot of calories, so their sleep and appetite become stronger.  

When swimming in a pool, a person receives a colossal amount of information, only from the mere fact that they are in contact with the environment.

3. Confidence

Psychologists say that a child, diving or swimming at a certain depth, overcomes the resistance of the water, develops traits such as purposefulness, perseverance, self-control, determination, discipline, and the ability to show independence. Children who swim from birth are more confident, sociable, and exhibit stronger leadership qualities.

4. Coordination and balance

Swimming relieves the load from the spine, eliminates non-natural and non-physiological movements.
Babies move freely and actively in the water. Overcoming water resistance contributes to the strengthening of all muscle groups and the development of joints. Therefore, children who swim from birth learn faster how to sit down, stand up, crawl, and walk.

Overcoming water resistance contributes to the strengthening of all muscle groups and the development of joints.

5. Speech development  

When exercising in the pool, fine motor skills of the hands develop, which is associated with the nervous system, vision, attention, and perception of the child. Scientists have proven that the development of fine motor skills and speech are closely related.

Breathing exercises, such as puffing out the cheeks and controlled breathing are additional speech therapy exercises and they help improve pronunciation in the future.  

Water is one of the best ways for the development of a child, it is gentle and very effective. It strokes the skin with optimal pressure, which improves blood circulation and strengthens the baby’s nervous system. Physical exercises that a child performs in water, starting from a very early age, contribute to an improved lung capacity while enriching the blood with oxygen.  

Be careful, though””newborns and infants should never be left alone near bathtubs or pools!

About the author: Ana Jevtić is a sinologist and language enthusiast. Coming from a bilingual family, Ana  developed a deep love for learning new languages and sharing her knowledge with others. Besides her daily job as a translator in a Chinese company, she spends her evenings teaching English to  children.

The post Benefits of Infant Swimming for Baby’s Development appeared first on Novak Djokovic Foundation.

Encourage them to pursue their natural talents

Your child may begin to exhibit certain gifts at one point or another. When you notice these gifts, celebrate and nurture them. It’s important that you encourage your child to pursue their natural talents, as often their passion stems from the things they are already good at.

Is that you, Frida?

Now, that’s not to say that your child will become passionate about their natural talents as soon as they begin to exhibit them. That’s okay; they’re in their formative years exploring everything they can. They might not be quick to latch onto any particular thing. Even so, encourage them as soon as you notice they’re good at something. Let them know that you support them pursuing it, even if they might not do so immediately.

Challenge your kid

Once you find something that your kid is naturally good at, encourage them to also try out things that they are not naturally good at. The flip side of finding the things we’re good at early is that we might not want to try anything else. And yet, in those formative years, you want your child to try everything they can to unlock their full range of talents.

At the end of the day, challenge your child to try new things. Even if they’re not immediately good at it, they’ll most likely enjoy it.

Sign your child up for a sport

Sports are one of the areas where almost anyone can find some natural gift or other of theirs. It doesn’t matter whether they do tennis, basketball, football, soccer, gymnastics, or dance. The point is to let them try out different sports for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Apart from potentially finding something they’re good at, they will reap other benefits from sports, such as being fit and healthy, learning to work in teams, and socializing with friends.

Sign your child up to learn music

Music is yet another area where many people find their natural gifts. But it also goes beyond that. Learning music can have massive benefits for your child. It will improve their fine motor skills, memory, creativity, and many other cognitive abilities.

Help your child do their homework

Your child’s passion can take any form. One way to help them find it is to do their homework with them. It’s a great way to find out if they have an academic passion, such as one for mathematics, or science, or even history. Maybe they just like solving challenging problems and so enjoy the problem sets given during homework.

“Hey, I can’t be doing this by myself all the time! I need someone to help me out but I don’t know who… (hint: look at my shirt)”

It’s also a great opportunity to find out how your child learns new things and to introduce them to new and interesting subjects, or work with them on projects. There is a slew of paper writers online that write on many interesting topics for them to learn. School projects, especially, are an excellent way to find their creative spark and build cool things. At any rate, taking the time to help your child with their homework will be a great bonding experience for the two of you.

Have conversations often with your child

Our technology-filled world has its advantages, but one of its biggest disadvantages is that it can create distance between people who should be close. With so many parents absorbed by their phones, there’s a shortage of authentic parent-child conversations.

Parenting – as easy as riding a bike or a bit more complex?

Have regular conversations with your child. Talk to them as if they are a fellow adult, giving everything they say due consideration. Let the conversation be open so they can say what’s really on their mind without fear of judgment. They just might reveal their interests and passions to you.

Conclusion

As you can see, your child’s passion can be just about anything. The trick to helping them find it is to encourage them to embrace life and eat it with a big spoon, exploring everything they can and having fun along the way. They might stumble on their life’s purpose, or maybe not, but either way, the positive side-effects of the journey are worth it.

About the Author: Jake S. Platt is 31. He has a master’s degree in marketing and currently started his way as a content writer. He wrote his first story at age 15. Now he brings his decades of experience to inspire people to explore the world.

The post How to Help your Kid Find Passion appeared first on Novak Djokovic Foundation.

Encourage them to pursue their natural talents

Your child may begin to exhibit certain gifts at one point or another. When you notice these gifts, celebrate and nurture them. It’s important that you encourage your child to pursue their natural talents, as often their passion stems from the things they are already good at.

Is that you, Frida?

Now, that’s not to say that your child will become passionate about their natural talents as soon as they begin to exhibit them. That’s okay; they’re in their formative years exploring everything they can. They might not be quick to latch onto any particular thing. Even so, encourage them as soon as you notice they’re good at something. Let them know that you support them pursuing it, even if they might not do so immediately.

Challenge your kid

Once you find something that your kid is naturally good at, encourage them to also try out things that they are not naturally good at. The flip side of finding the things we’re good at early is that we might not want to try anything else. And yet, in those formative years, you want your child to try everything they can to unlock their full range of talents.

At the end of the day, challenge your child to try new things. Even if they’re not immediately good at it, they’ll most likely enjoy it.

Sign your child up for a sport

Sports are one of the areas where almost anyone can find some natural gift or other of theirs. It doesn’t matter whether they do tennis, basketball, football, soccer, gymnastics, or dance. The point is to let them try out different sports for the sheer enjoyment of it.

Apart from potentially finding something they’re good at, they will reap other benefits from sports, such as being fit and healthy, learning to work in teams, and socializing with friends.

Sign your child up to learn music

Music is yet another area where many people find their natural gifts. But it also goes beyond that. Learning music can have massive benefits for your child. It will improve their fine motor skills, memory, creativity, and many other cognitive abilities.

Help your child do their homework

Your child’s passion can take any form. One way to help them find it is to do their homework with them. It’s a great way to find out if they have an academic passion, such as one for mathematics, or science, or even history. Maybe they just like solving challenging problems and so enjoy the problem sets given during homework.

“Hey, I can’t be doing this by myself all the time! I need someone to help me out but I don’t know who… (hint: look at my shirt)”

It’s also a great opportunity to find out how your child learns new things and to introduce them to new and interesting subjects, or work with them on projects. There is a slew of paper writers online that write on many interesting topics for them to learn. School projects, especially, are an excellent way to find their creative spark and build cool things. At any rate, taking the time to help your child with their homework will be a great bonding experience for the two of you.

Have conversations often with your child

Our technology-filled world has its advantages, but one of its biggest disadvantages is that it can create distance between people who should be close. With so many parents absorbed by their phones, there’s a shortage of authentic parent-child conversations.

Parenting – as easy as riding a bike or a bit more complex?

Have regular conversations with your child. Talk to them as if they are a fellow adult, giving everything they say due consideration. Let the conversation be open so they can say what’s really on their mind without fear of judgment. They just might reveal their interests and passions to you.

Conclusion

As you can see, your child’s passion can be just about anything. The trick to helping them find it is to encourage them to embrace life and eat it with a big spoon, exploring everything they can and having fun along the way. They might stumble on their life’s purpose, or maybe not, but either way, the positive side-effects of the journey are worth it.

About the Author: Jake S. Platt is 31. He has a master’s degree in marketing and currently started his way as a content writer. He wrote his first story at age 15. Now he brings his decades of experience to inspire people to explore the world.

The post How to Help your Kid Find Passion appeared first on Novak Djokovic Foundation.

The Adult’s Active Role

Parents and guardians play an active role in children’s education. How we talk with our kids now affects them later in life. With the incessant pressure current generations face, we need to enforce positive affirmations into our children’s lives and thoughts. We put a tremendous amount of faith into kids, but along with that we also unload a tremendous burden onto them. We believe they can fix the world, so we unload the world’s problems onto their tiny shoulders. In order for our children to succeed, we cannot only give them resources on how to grow and save the world; we must be an active resource and example. When these kids grow up, they are suddenly indoctrinated into how the world actually works: Opportunities and success are subjective and certain people/ideas are valued over others. This can cause the dreams of a better world to quickly come crashing down.

“Children are never too young to understand and we do not always need to protect them from inherent truths. To truly help them navigate realities, we must lead by example, by being their favorite teacher.”

Kids become who we are, even if it is not directly our fault

Children learn from us whether we are actively teaching them or not. They mimic our mannerisms and inherit our traumas, while our ideologies become their moral compasses. The things we feed our egos with and the emotional addictions we surrender to become the habits our kids feed off of. Personal morality and strong judgment can lead to children fearing disappointing their parents if they believe conflicting views. This is why we must focus on bettering ourselves, too. Our children cannot be all of the things that we failed to be. Although our intentions may come from a good place and we only wish to give our children the things we ourselves lacked, that does not mean that we are not hurting them in other ways. Even if it is not intentional, or even directly our fault, kids learn from us, both good and bad. It is important for us to be conscious of our behavior towards them, but more significantly, around them.

“Do not force your children to be something they are not. It is your job to live a life that inspires children to live theirs to their fullest potential.”

Stop imposing yourself on your children, let them be who they are

We need to let our children be themselves, no matter who they choose to be. It is their choice to decide who they want to be in this life. We can only help them along the way by doing the work to set a good example, ourselves – starting with accepting them for who they are. It is imperative that we learn to have children for unselfish reasons and be prepared to give them the resource of a present and mindful, level-headed adult. Progress means working towards unwrapping our own traumas and working on our poor habits today, not tomorrow. We have to realize that our children can’t be everything we couldn’t be for ourselves. Children should also not be brought into this world for the sake and pressure of other family members. Have children when you are ready to selflessly provide another human being with the means to live their own lives, not the life you want for them.

Ways we can hurt our children (even unintentionally)

The fact of the matter is that we can unintentionally hurt our children. We can pass down generational trauma and even our best intentions can be detrimental if we put too much pressure on our children to fit our ideals. Letting our own problems go unsolved, avoiding the work for self-improvement, and putting pressure on our children can lead to some common health struggles, both somatic and emotional.

Emotional/behavioral troubles include:

• Anxiety
• Mood disorders
• Eating disorders
• Depression
• Body / self image issues
• Guilt
• Fear
• Anger
• Confusion
• Attitude changes
• Social withdrawal / isolation

While physical problems can manifest as:

• Migraines
• Appetite loss
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Gastrointestinal issues
• Stomach / digestive issues

What can you do?

It is important to remember that this work is something that doesn’t happen overnight. This is something that needs to be worked on every day, slowly, but consistently. Some may need more time than others, but the work to ground ourselves needs to be done. We should never feel the need to stop improving. We are always learning and changing. To better ourselves, we need to put in the work. Self-awareness is a journey, not a destination. The revolution of raising ourselves and new generations has to start with us, not with our children. It has to start today because kids inherit our behaviors and trauma. They don’t only learn from them, they inherit them. So, let’s learn to sit with our own discomfort and, together with our kids, we can improve every day.

About the Author: Diana Randjelovic is a writer, designer, and artist. With a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture, Diana’s designs and writing focus on memory work of people and place. She is behind the online community, mala mgzn which focuses on community care for Serbian women and daughters of immigrants.

The post Be Your Child’s Favorite Teacher appeared first on Novak Djokovic Foundation.

The Adult’s Active Role

Parents and guardians play an active role in children’s education. How we talk with our kids now affects them later in life. With the incessant pressure current generations face, we need to enforce positive affirmations into our children’s lives and thoughts. We put a tremendous amount of faith into kids, but along with that we also unload a tremendous burden onto them. We believe they can fix the world, so we unload the world’s problems onto their tiny shoulders. In order for our children to succeed, we cannot only give them resources on how to grow and save the world; we must be an active resource and example. When these kids grow up, they are suddenly indoctrinated into how the world actually works: Opportunities and success are subjective and certain people/ideas are valued over others. This can cause the dreams of a better world to quickly come crashing down.

“Children are never too young to understand and we do not always need to protect them from inherent truths. To truly help them navigate realities, we must lead by example, by being their favorite teacher.”

Kids become who we are, even if it is not directly our fault

Children learn from us whether we are actively teaching them or not. They mimic our mannerisms and inherit our traumas, while our ideologies become their moral compasses. The things we feed our egos with and the emotional addictions we surrender to become the habits our kids feed off of. Personal morality and strong judgment can lead to children fearing disappointing their parents if they believe conflicting views. This is why we must focus on bettering ourselves, too. Our children cannot be all of the things that we failed to be. Although our intentions may come from a good place and we only wish to give our children the things we ourselves lacked, that does not mean that we are not hurting them in other ways. Even if it is not intentional, or even directly our fault, kids learn from us, both good and bad. It is important for us to be conscious of our behavior towards them, but more significantly, around them.

“Do not force your children to be something they are not. It is your job to live a life that inspires children to live theirs to their fullest potential.”

Stop imposing yourself on your children, let them be who they are

We need to let our children be themselves, no matter who they choose to be. It is their choice to decide who they want to be in this life. We can only help them along the way by doing the work to set a good example, ourselves – starting with accepting them for who they are. It is imperative that we learn to have children for unselfish reasons and be prepared to give them the resource of a present and mindful, level-headed adult. Progress means working towards unwrapping our own traumas and working on our poor habits today, not tomorrow. We have to realize that our children can’t be everything we couldn’t be for ourselves. Children should also not be brought into this world for the sake and pressure of other family members. Have children when you are ready to selflessly provide another human being with the means to live their own lives, not the life you want for them.

Ways we can hurt our children (even unintentionally)

The fact of the matter is that we can unintentionally hurt our children. We can pass down generational trauma and even our best intentions can be detrimental if we put too much pressure on our children to fit our ideals. Letting our own problems go unsolved, avoiding the work for self-improvement, and putting pressure on our children can lead to some common health struggles, both somatic and emotional.

Emotional/behavioral troubles include:

• Anxiety
• Mood disorders
• Eating disorders
• Depression
• Body / self image issues
• Guilt
• Fear
• Anger
• Confusion
• Attitude changes
• Social withdrawal / isolation

While physical problems can manifest as:

• Migraines
• Appetite loss
• Fatigue
• Insomnia
• Gastrointestinal issues
• Stomach / digestive issues

What can you do?

It is important to remember that this work is something that doesn’t happen overnight. This is something that needs to be worked on every day, slowly, but consistently. Some may need more time than others, but the work to ground ourselves needs to be done. We should never feel the need to stop improving. We are always learning and changing. To better ourselves, we need to put in the work. Self-awareness is a journey, not a destination. The revolution of raising ourselves and new generations has to start with us, not with our children. It has to start today because kids inherit our behaviors and trauma. They don’t only learn from them, they inherit them. So, let’s learn to sit with our own discomfort and, together with our kids, we can improve every day.

About the Author: Diana Randjelovic is a writer, designer, and artist. With a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture, Diana’s designs and writing focus on memory work of people and place. She is behind the online community, mala mgzn which focuses on community care for Serbian women and daughters of immigrants.

The post Be Your Child’s Favorite Teacher appeared first on Novak Djokovic Foundation.