I'm teaching my kids to swim (so far 2 of 4 can swim and the 3rd is almost there).

What I have
discovered is that exposure and experience are the best teachers. I haven't really had to "teach"
anything. Given enough time in the pool, they figure it out. I give them pointers on things like,
kicking with their legs straight out behind them and what to do with their hands. In the beginning I
tried to get them to hold onto the side of the pool or something else and practice kicking. But even
that wasn't terribly productive. I've found that it's the best to just let them go at it and try stuff!

Start with blowing bubbles in shallow water. Then work on holding the wall and kicking while trying
to get their bodies flat. Your 1yr old can do all that too.

Then take them a short distance from the wall, or have another adult help you. Push them to the
wall while they "swim." I did this between myself and dh, or my mom.

Then I held an arm under their belly while they really swam. And more swimming to the wall
moving further away each time.

If there are steps, drop things on the steps for them to pick up.

Have them jump into the water with you catching them.

If they have never swam much, the most important thing is to get them used to the water, they
need to not be scared of the water, but understand that it is dangerous if they don't know how to
swim.

I pretty much did what Chapel did except I would also add daily kicking exercises while holding the
wall because if the legs are not strong enough to kick, swimming is difficult. The need should be
locked, not bent, as much as possible. I doubt it could be learned in one week but if your child is
about 8 or over, that is possible.

We start with kickboards and kicking with their arms on the top of the kickboard (no tummies on
the board!) and kicking a distance. Start by holding the kickboard as you guide them. Then see if
they can do it on their own. The next step for all three of my older kids was to tell them to swim to
me (maybe a few feet) with their legs kicking just like they do with the kickboard and their faces
in the water. Face in the water is key!

BUT, don't forget to do a lot of playing. Exposure and fun in the water MUST be first.

Also, if you can, avoid using life jackets or floaties or arm rings. These give a false sense of
security and prevent a young child from using the proper form for swimming. They actually hinder
swimming progress. For my kids, swimming at 3yo is completely possible.

I used to teach swimming. Long ago. First thing is with a bunch of little ones only work with one at
a time and have someone else to be able to carefully watch the rest at all times. It is possible to
drown in almost no water.

In a pool with a side, I like to start with

1) practice getting in and out at steps
2) hand over hand movement along the edge
3) putting face in water (easy for some, scary for others--can be practiced in a bathtub too) In a
very shallow pool you can also work on picking things up off the bottom (or can sometime do that
on steps) which gets the face in.
4) pushing off from wall and gliding (with face in water) to adult teacher who will meet and catch
child (start very very close and take a tiny step back each time a level is accomplished--set the
child up to always succeed by never going farther back than they can manage, or by stepping
forward as much as needed if you see them faltering.)
5) going from adult back to wall
6) steps 4 and 5 at longer distances and adding in kick (or later arm stroke, but most times
starting with a kick only seems best).
7) step 6 and adding in raising head for a breath and then putting face back in

If child is comfortable with it, then a back float with a little kicking is wonderful as a survival
means to get from any place in pool back to the side and then go hand over hand to the steps.
Some kids do not float well, though and find it extremely scary. Hands up over head tends to
balance out weight of legs, and pointing out that air in lungs will help keep chest floating even if
legs sink downward is helpful. Similarly, working on some water treading is also a good safety
thing to learn, and especially if there is a very gradual shallow end for some it is not that hard to
learn with movements started at a point where bottom can still be touched..

Use only positive happy terms that you think your kids would like (such as swimming like a
dolphin, or floating like an otter, or log...boys also tend to respond to things like shooting off from
the side like submarines)--but not anything like "dead man's float" which is scary to many, nor for
many kids "shark".

Working toward being able to jump in and get back to side could be good to enhance safety--but is
likely too be way too much for one week. But for some without fears that would be manageable
early on. Some might be able to clamber in and out at the edge without steps which could also be
a safety thing.

Watch them a lot both for safety and because it helps the learning if they can get to the stage of
doing things themselves and calling for you to marvel at the wonder of their progress.

This might be useful:

http://teachyourkidstoswim.com/

Here are actual lesson plans for teaching your kids to swim yourself:

http://www.uswim.com/