When Florence was tiny we bought her a Miss Zoggy Bobin swim jacket from Zoggs. It has 8 floats in idividual pockets and has been brilliant for helping her learn to swim. You can remove floats as they get more confident and Florence still wears it even now sometimes although she can actually swim without it. It just makes her feel that bit more secure when swimming out of her depth or comfort zone in a new pool and it has definitely been a good purchase; something we have recommended to friends often. The only thing about it which annoyed me slightly was the fact the writing and motif came off pretty early on in our use of it. But then I find these things never stay on, we always buy SPF suits for holidays and the stickers come off after the first couple of swims. It’s a shame as it makes them look a bit shabby but it doesn’t detract from them working. We’ve been really pleased with the jacket and although it comes in two sizes, ages 2-3 and 4-5, Florence still easily fits in her age 2-3 one and she is actually almost 6!

Jimmy has a jacket too but it’s not a Zoggs one and it doesn’t have floats which can be removed. I bought it because it was cheap in the supermarket and I thought by the time Florence didn’t really use her jacket anymore, which could be now, he could have hers. Of course, I didn’t bank on him declaring things too ‘girlish’ because of their colour and her jacket… is PINK! Jimmy is quite anti anything ‘girlish’!

I thought about buying him the ‘boys’ version but then when we were on holiday we saw a little girl with a stack of back floats that looked very interesting and I was going to look into that option as an alternative. Then, when we got home I was asked if I’d like to review some of the new Peppa Pig range from Zoggs learn To Swim section. As luck would have it they too make a stack of back floats and with the added bonus of them being Peppa Pig related I knew they’d be agreed to be worn at the very least! We were sent the back floats, some Peppa Pig Squirts and a Peppa Pig Kickboard float which Florence has been using to practice with!

The squirts toys have been lots of fun and they’ve actually been playing with them in the tub each night. I guess they’re perfect to take to the pool or have at home then. The only thing is that the children can’t seem to make the water squirt unless they’re turned upside down but hey, they don’t mind that!

As I mentioned, Florence has been using the kickboard float to help perfect her swimming technique. She is pretty good at swimming on her back and can go for ages before putting her feet down but swimming on her front she can probably only go for about 5 meters before stopping. She can swim under water for longer but with her head out I think she might just panic a little and need to stop. The float has meant she can relax a bit more, as she does when swimming under water or on her back, and is helping give her the confidence to swim that bit further.

And the back float, as I thought it would, is great for Jimmy! They say at Zoggs that it’s:

• Ideal for learn to swim
• Remove the layers as your child gains confidence
• Ages 2-6 years, max weight 25kg
• Heavy duty EVA
• Double action safety buckle
• Yellow/Blue with Peppa and George characters

And although at the moment we are using it with all floats, I can see that in time this will perform just the same trick as the swim jacket. As we remove floats Jimmy won’t even notice and will just keep swimming. He didn’t like wearing it at first but we’ve been a couple of times now and he seems not to notice it so much anymore. It’s good at keeping him afloat and even lets him lie on his back which he thinks is great fun. With regards to whether it’s better than the jacket or not I couldn’t really say as we think the jacket is fabulous and haven’t used the back floats for as long but it does what it’s supposed to do with little hindrance. It also doesn’t need any time to dry whereas the jack does take rather a long time…

My little baby will be swimming in no time like his sister I’m sure, he just needs a little more reassurance and the back swim floats give him that. I do wonder if my dunking him under when he was tiny had a lasting affect on the way he looks at the pool! This was him was the result of my doing that though – Nirvana album cover eat your heart out!

We were sent the Zoggs Peppa Pig products for the purpose of an honest review.

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