We started taking our tyoungest daughter swimming from an early age but she never really found any independance in the pool and we started having problems with her when she got to the stage that she would only go in the baby pool and even then she would cling to us the whole time she was in there. It became a bit of a problem when we had our second daughter as I couldn't manage to hold onto them both in the pool then one day when we took the girls swimming the pool had some floats and woggles out and finally Sophie was happy to let go of us and actually play by herself. As soon as we left the pool we went over to Mothercare in search of a float and woggle for her to give her a little confidence and we found this one in the Early Learning Centre section.

We found that there were a couple of floats in the store, a multicoloured one, a red one and a pink one so it was obvious straight away which one she would pick since she has always been pink daft since she was about 2! The floats cost £5 each which I think is a good price as the float will last for ages and I would expect this one will last long enough to be past to our younger daughter too if Sophie ever learns to actually swim.

The float is made of foam so is very soft yet firm and of course it floats otherwise it would be pointless, there is a pink layer of foam and then a white layer and then another pink layer making a white sandwich. The float is about 1 1/4 inches thick which is a nice size for little hands to hold onto without straining their hands and on top of the float is the outline of a seahorse although my daughter didn't actually know what it was. I liked the float and though the added sea horse made the float a little more friendly for children especially if they are having issues with confidence in the water.

The first time we went swimming with the float there was no stopping my daughter she didn't even need to hold our hands to get into the pool which amazed me. She foudn using the float easy and she likes to cuddle the float into her chest and know that she isn't going to go under the water. She likes the fact that the float is pink and she calls it her horsey float, I can't quite believe how much confidence this has given her in the water. She still won't attenpt to actually kick her legs whilst holding the float but with our encouragement i'm sure that will come in time, we also take a woggle to the pool too to try and encourage her further and even our younger daughtyer will lay over the woggle happily. The float dries off quickly when you are finished but you can easily wipe it down with a towel if you prefer and ours has no marks or damage on it so for £5 I am impressed.