Tag: swimming

Best UK Water Parks

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Calypso Cove Waterpark; Barnsley, South Yorkshire

All the family will be thoroughly entertained at this brilliant pirate themed water park which is home to some seriously cool slides and flumes! Check out Terror Torrent which is one of the UK’s fastest indoor flumes, or how about the family friendly Kraken which lets you choose your own music to slide down to – how cool!

Alton Towers Waterpark; Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire

Often forgotten about whilst everyone explores the theme park, the waterpark at Alton Towers is equally as incredible! With rides to keep the adrenaline junkies happy such as the Master Blaster Water Coaster, there is also plenty on offer for the little ones. So if your legs are feeling tired from walking around the theme park or you need to cool down, pay the waterpark a visit! .

Wet n Wild; North Shields, Tyne and Wear

Your little adrenaline junkies will love trying out the wild rides having fun with the wave machine. For the braver visitors there is The Kamikaze which has an 80 foot drop!! There is lots on offer for littler visitors too and check the website for parent and toddler swimming sessions.

The Time Capsule Waterpark; Coatbridge, Scotland

Located within a complex which has an Ice Rink and Sports Centre, this waterpark has exhilarating colourful water slides including the Tornado Tantrum, Tsunami, Riptide River and Coral Cove which thrill seekers will love! It’s not all slides though, there is also a 25 metre long pool for the little ones to practise their swimming.

WaterWorld; Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire

A visit to this fantastic indoor tropical aqua park is a must during the school holidays and you’ll be guaranteed a splashing good time! Race your friends down the slides, swing on the lily pads and enjoy the wave machine. There is also an aqua disco held on a Friday night for all the family which includes use of the water rides and slides too!

The Rapids; Romsey, Hampshire

This fantastic leisure pool is a real hit with children and adults of all ages and offers plenty of family fun. Ride the rapids, enjoy the flume and for the little ones there is a pirate ship to explore. There are also bubble seats and a huuuuge bucket which tips water so dodge it if you can!

Sandcastle Waterpark; South Beach, Blackpool

This large indoor waterpark is one of Blackpool’s leading tourist attractions. Great for water babies of all ages you’ll find waterslides, fun pools, a wave machine, a lazy river, water shoots and much more. There are also a range of dining options so you can relax with a coffee whilst the children play.

Best indoor waterparks

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Don’t let the cold, miserable weather dampen your day as we’ve found just the thing to cheer the kids up in the form of an indoor waterpark! We’ve listed some of our favourites to keep up your sleeve for those grey days!

Calypso Cove Waterpark; Barnsley, South Yorkshire

All the family will be thoroughly entertained at this brilliant pirate themed water park which is home to some seriously cool slides and flumes! Check out Terror Torrent which is one of the UK’s fastest indoor flumes, or how about the family friendly Kraken which lets you choose your own music to slide down to – how cool!

Alton Towers Waterpark; Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire

Often forgotten about whilst everyone explores the theme park, the waterpark at Alton Towers is equally as incredible! With rides to keep the adrenaline junkies happy such as the Master Blaster Water Coaster, there is also plenty on offer for the little ones. So if your legs are feeling tired from walking around the theme park or you need to cool down, pay the waterpark a visit!

Wet n Wild; North Shields, Tyne and Wear

Your little adrenaline junkies will love trying out the wild rides having fun with the wave machine. For the braver visitors there is The Kamikaze which has an 80 foot drop eeek! There is lots on offer for littler visitors too and check the website for parent and toddler swimming sessions.

The Time Capsule Waterpark; Coatbridge, Scotland

Located within a complex which has an Ice Rink and Sports Centre, this waterpark has exhilarating colourful water slides including the Tornado Tantrum, Tsunami, Riptide River and Coral Cove which thrill seekers will love! It’s not all slides though, there is also a 25 metre long pool for the little ones to practise their swimming.

WaterWorld; Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire

A visit to this fantastic indoor tropical aqua park is a must during the school holidays and you’ll be guaranteed a splashing good time! Race your friends down the slides, swing on the lily pads and enjoy the wave machine. There is also an aqua disco held on a Friday night for all the family which includes use of the water rides and slides too!

The Rapids; Romsey, Hampshire

This fantastic leisure pool is a real hit with children and adults of all ages and offers plenty of fun. Ride the rapids, enjoy the flume and for the little ones there is a pirate ship to explore. There are also bubble seats and a huuuuge bucket which tips water so dodge it if you can!

Sandcastle Waterpark; South Beach, Blackpool

This large indoor waterpark is one of Blackpool’s leading tourist attractions. Great for water babies of all ages you’ll find waterslides, fun pools, a wave machine, a lazy river, water shoots and much more. There are also a range of dining options so you can relax with a coffee whilst the children play.

Oasis Beach Pool; Bedford, Bedfordshire

Head to this tropical paradise which will keep the kids entertained for hours with two wild flumes, a wave machine, a mushroom fountain, a beach area and much more! And as we’re now enjoying the sunny weather a real highlight is the outdoor lazy river float ride!

Waterworld; Newquay, Cornwall

With something for all the family, this fully equipped indoor swimming pool is great for escaping the hot sunshine or even the rain clouds. With a tropical fun pool, a snake fountain, two flumes and so much more, you are guaranteed that the kids will have a great time! There’s even a 6 lane 25 metre swimming pool to practise your swimming techniques!

Splashdown; Poole, Dorset

This brilliant waterpark is great for all ages and abilities even the younger children! The daredevils of the family will love The Screamer which is basically a slide with a vertical drop, the Tennessee Twister, and Baron’s Revenge. Younger visitors can play in the Little Buccaneers SplashZone with a starter flume, play area and a toddler swimming pool.

The Leisure Pool at Leisure World; Colchester, Essex

For an action packed day out the Leisure Pool at Leisure World will provide the kids with exactly that! A real family friendly attraction, the little ones will absolutely love the water canons, bubbles, crazy river, tipping buckets and loads more! There’s also a 13 metre flume to zoom down, for those looking for something a bit more crazy!

Blue Lagoon Water Park; Narberth, Wales

Bring the kids along to Blue Lagoon where they will enjoy plenty of exciting rides, rapid rivers and flumes. The main feature is the large wave pool with a sloping beach area, however for a more relaxing experience there is a lazy river to just float around plus an outdoor hot tub. For the younger visitors, there is a special area called Nippers Cove which they can explore!

We hope these indoor waterparks have given you some rainy day inspiration for kids entertainment – whilst burning some energy! We suggest you sit back and grab a cuppa whilst the little ones are having fun!

Go swimming

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We all hear on a regular basis how good swimming is for us, how it is one of the best forms of exercise and we should all be swimming like fish whenever possible. And while many ‘healthy living’ ideas can be a bit over-emphasized, swimming definitely isn’t one of them. When you are talking about children swimming, these benefits are just the start – exercise is great, building confidence is brilliant and learning them a life skill is also crucial.

Preparing for swimming

For some babies, the age of around six months is reached, parents take them to the local leisure centre and they take to it like a duck to water (pun intended!) but for others the idea of going into the swimming pool isn’t well met. Toddlers in particularly are prone to fear of water than can manifest in the bath or shower and will come on in a big way at a swimming pool. But there are techniques that can be used from a young age to prepare kids for swimming.

Six months is the starting point because at this point they can normally sit up. Begin preparations by sitting them in a bathtub or a paddling pool so they get used to the feel of water around them. You can even dribble a little water from a sponge into their head and let the clean water trickle over their faces. This shows them there is nothing to fear in water around the face.

Showing them that water is fun is another good step and babies are great mimics. Putting your mouth in the water and blowing bubbles will make them laugh and encourage them to copy, though make sure they don’t suck instead of blow and end up with a mouthful of bathwater! Having toys in the bath is something most parents do automatically and this helps associate water with fun.

The best time to introduce your little kids to water is during a family swim session. It can be intimidating but if they see other kids in the water, this can help them overcome any instinctive ears. Sitting on the edge of the pool and dangling their feet in the water is a great first step. Hold them with a hand under the bottom and another around the back then ease them into the water, gently moving around with you in their line of sight at all times.

 

Swimming lessons

Formal swimming lessons are a popular choice for many parents today. These are particular popular if the parents themselves aren’t the most confident swimmers but want their children to be able to do better. Others find teaching their kids trying for one reason or another but find they listen better to a stranger, a ‘proper’ teacher.

Another idea is to do a little teaching yourself before beginning formal lessons so that they feel it is all fun and not another ‘school’. It is important to let them try things at their own pace and informal play sessions are often the best way, even for older kids. If being in the water is fun, then learning to swim is just a different type of fun.

Don’t worry about letting them use water aids either. Armbands, woggles, float pads and much more are all okay to use in most swimming pools and are a great way for kids to learn the physical skills of swimming without worrying about actually staying afloat. This helps them build up their confidence in the pool as well and they will often abandon the floats themselves without any prompting when they feel they no longer need them.

Swim inspiration

Because swimming is so good for kids, there are plenty of campaigns and programs to encourage parents to get their kids into the water. One example is the Speedo’s Learn to Swim Campaign, backed by former Olympic medallist Rebecca Adlington. It encourages parents to take photos of their kids in the water and submit them to the Facebook page to be in with a chance to win a pair of their swimming goggles.

Another program in place is the Help Children Get Safe campaign that encourages kids to have a good idea about what to do in an emergency around the pool. The aim is that they can go into the water, have great fun but be aware of the dangers and what to do if something unexpected happens. Leisure centres and swim clubs around the country are getting involved with a series of events and even special certificates being created to award to kids who get involved.