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Your child’s arms should be held out in front of them, then moved slowly backward. Ask your child to repeat this motion (front to back, back to front) the whole time. Demonstrate this movement, and encourage your child to try.  It may feel more natural to your child to move their arms up and down, but this is not an effective way to tread water and will tire them out quickly. Try pretending you and your child are in the jungle, using your arms to part the vines. The palms of your child’s hands should be facing in the direction their arms are moving. When their arms go as far as they can comfortably go toward your kid’s back, they should rotate their hands so that the palms face forward while moving their arms toward the front.  Ask them to pretend they are parting grass or vines and pushing them to the sides so they can get through. These motions should be done slowly and evenly to conserve energy. Once your kid has mastered the proper arm motions, you can move on to teaching the proper leg motions. Although breathing and arm-only exercises can be practiced standing up, in order to do leg exercises your child will need to sit, lie down, or try other positions.  Practicing at a playground is ideal because your kid can be helped into a position where their feet are not on the ground. You can help your kid hang from a horizontal bar or suspended rings on the climbing tower. To demonstrate these motions, suspend your own body off the ground. You may need to maneuver your child’s legs for them until they can do the motions on their own. One of the easier leg motions to learn is known as the "scissor kick."  To do this, ask your child to move their legs apart (one toward the front and one toward the back) then reverses them. Demonstrate this move for your child. Then ask them to pretend their legs are scissors cutting through a piece of paper. The "frog kick" is a move where your child will bend both legs, with the knees pointed outward. Then they will extend both legs at the same time. Demonstrate this for your child, then ask them to pretend like they are a jumping frog. The most efficient leg motion for treading water is called "the rotary" or "eggbeater." Unfortunately, this move can be difficult. For this one, one of child’s legs will make slow clockwise circular motions, while the other leg makes slow counterclockwise motions. Demonstrate this for your kid, then ask them to imagine they are mixing eggs with each foot. Have them try to do each leg independently, and work up to doing both at the same time.

Summary:
Emphasize a front-to-back arm motion. Pay attention to your child’s palms. Get your child into a position with their feet off the ground. Try a scissor kick. Do a frog kick. Work up to the eggbeater.