Teaching Small Kids to Snorkel

“Under the Sea”— that’s where you should be, when you travel to places with coral and beautiful fish-life. Everyone should snorkel, and with a little effort, kids as young as five or six can have a fun experience.

Difficulty: N/A

Time Required: 1 to 2 hours

Here’s How:

  1. Start your snorkel lessons in the bath-tub, before your trip. Kids will love this idea.
  2. Let your child play with the snorkel, and get the hang of breathing through it.Teaching kids to snorkel
  3. Now, try the face-mask– without the snorkel. Have your child position just the front of the face-mask on his/her face.
  4. Make sure the face-mask fits well– kids can’t stand it when water leaks in! (See Tips, below.) Have your child inhale through the nose: the mask should stick on his/her face.
  5. Be sure to smooth back all stray hair! Water will leak into the face mask via any strands of hair.
  6. Now, pull the strap section of the mask over your child’s head, and into position. This is the hard part: kids hate to feel the rubber strap pull against their hair. Pull the strap in a way that minimizes rubbing the hair.
To Consider:
  1. If your child is frustrated, stop and try another time. Once the child is comfortable with the mask, try adding the snorkel.Teaching kids to snorkel
  2. The snorkel doesn’t need to be attached properly, i.e. threaded through the loop on the face-mask. You can just tuck it between the face-mask and your child’s face.
  3. Once on your vacation, do some snorkel practicing in a pool.
  4. When you finally try real-life snorkeling in the sea, try to find a calm place, like a lagoon. Wave action can un-nerve a child, at first.
  5. Bring along water-wings, so that your child’s energy isn’t used up just staying afloat while you’re snorkeling.
  6. all snorkelers in your group should carefully stay away from coral. Coral is damaged when it’s touched; also any contact with the coral will instantly cause a scrape or cut.

Tips:

  1. You don’t need to buy expensive snorkel sets; in fact, it may be better to buy inexpensive gear get a few extra masks, to increase your chances of getting a good fit on little faces. (Don’t buy the really, really cheap little-kid sets though.)
  2. Make sure you’re comfortable with your own snorkeling equipment. You’ll have to give full attention to your child, as she/he explores this exciting new world.
  3. Remind your child not to kick other snorkelers in the face: kids get so absorbed in what they’re seeing, they tend not to notice other snorkelers!

How to snorkel – for adults

Once you got it down, get onboard with our biologist crew – for our Guided Snorkeling Adventure you’ll treasure what others will miss.