With summer officially here, many kids will be jumping in the swimming pool and taking some lessons while cooling down in the process.
Throughout the entire 24 hours Thursday, kids and teachers across the country took part in "The World's Largest Swimming Lesson."
This worldwide event is happening for the eighth year in a row, as kids in more than 20 countries and 600 locations are learning the backstroke, how to float and many other swimming skills. This is a part of a cause to keep kids safe by teaching them to swim early.
Betsy Zielinski is the owner of SafeSplash Swim School in Austin and moved to the city to create this business with her husband. She said this type of early teaching can be helpful down the line.
"Most likely, if kids are taught in an organized setting, children who take swim lessons are much more likely to avoid any sort of swim-related accidents," Zielinski said. "Swimming is healthy. It's a life skill and something that they can do now and forever to keep them healthy."
SafeSplash taught a total of 22 lessons Thursday, with Collin's Hope and Safe Kids Austin also giving kids presentations on water safety as well. Zielinski said she likes her lessons to always have a four-to-one teacher-to-student ratio at maximum.
"We like to think of it as a mom-and-pop," Zielinski said. "I don't know if that's old school or not, but it makes us happy to have a learning environment that isn't very chaotic. We run maybe four lessons at the most in our pool at a time so that kids that might not have that focus in a large setting can go ahead and be able to have a learning environment conducive for getting their swimming skills."
To learn more about the World's Largest Swimming Lesson, you can go here.
To learn more about the SafeSplash Swim School, you can go here.