I have been paddling since the 1960s. I’ve been kayaking solidly for the last nine years year round. I paddle a sea kayak, sometimes in the sea.
My unplanned capsizes have often been at the launch. I’ve assisted all the club members and in the sweep position capsized my own boat at the bulkhead launch. I capsized at the bulkhead behind my house and took a face plant, low tide, which I was unable to get out of until the boat was moved. I capsized sitting still in the marsh waiting for the stragglers. I mention this because capsizes happen when you least expect them in quiet waters. If my 2 year grandson was in the boat with me on those times it would be iffy , but he always wears a PFD. Put the pfd on the kid and be ready for the swim…wade…it happens when you least expect it.
As noted in Colorado…Florida also requires kids that age to wear PFDs.
I had kids out on small tippy sailing dinghies by age 3-4, more likely to flip than a kayak, but we followed the same rules you’re considering
A good, properly-fitted PFD with leg straps. The leg straps are an absolute must for this age group. Let them pick the color, or choose from the few models you pre-approve, so they’ll be more excited about wearing it. Also, try to find one with a pocket, so they can bring a snack and stow their trash.
Stay close to shore, and in well-traveled areas, where help is available.
Avoid the cold waters. No kayaking with a toddler when the water is 40F, as much as you want to get out there in early spring.
Keep trips short, and stop before they get bored. That way, they’ll be eager to go again, next time.
One more note, I always wear a PFD with kids, even though I’m inclined to go without one when they’re not around. It cancels any thought they may have of fighting the issue, and truly makes you more able to help them, should something happen.
I don’t have kids but between doing safety at a demo day and practicing on a local pond near a kids camp I am roughly familiar with the behavior.
Can your kids swim yet, at that age meaning dog paddle around in a good PFD but it is still roughly swimming? If you got them into a pool very early and they can do that without panicking you have a lot more latitude. If they can’t I would advise against water any chillier than 70 degrees. Chilly alone can be disconcerting.
I would also try to avoid the risk of having to exit a kayak to get to the child that just hit the water, at least to start. Parents, camp counselors etc always tell the kids to stay in the boat. It often fails, kids find it a lot more fun to jump off or even flip the boat on purpose once they have the size.
One option would be to start them in water you can stand in and see how that goes. And BTW I think at least one basic SOT would make this easier. It will always serve them as a swimming platform. And you can look for a second boat that would serve more adult needs as suggested above.
I am not sure where the question of to PFD or not came up, I just scanned higher and it seems to have appeared. But yes they should be in decent ones, that will not ride up over their heads if they go swimming, and since they are under 12 there are many states where it is required anyway.
I have saved two kids from drowning in my life. Neither were wearing lifejackets.
I used to paddle with a friend with two kids about 5 and 7 when we started. One day we were out in Ruby Marshes in eastern Nevada. The kids were well behaved, but one day one of them jumped in the water using the gunwale as a jumping off place. We immediately capsized and I lost a pair of binoculars and a good straw hat.
I later went on a week long trip with the kids at about age 8 and 10. They knew their way around canoes by that time. When it got rough they would sleep in the bottom of the boat.
I started my kids at 5 with PFD. Although it my initial response was a bit snarky , most kids younger have very short attention spans and become restless in a hurry.
I wish I still had the link to a photo/video album and journal I found about 10 years ago, posted by a young couple who regularly took their 2 and 4 year old kids on extended (multiple days, even weeks) kayak camping river trips in the Yukon and Alaska. Both kids had full dry suits and seemed to be having an incredibly fun time kayaking, exploring the river banks and rough camping with their parents.
A couple I knew well in my outdoor club back in the 1980’s were both teachers and had summers off to pursue 2 to 3 month wilderness adventures, like hiking the entire Appalachian, Continental Divide and Pacific Crest trails and canoeing 1100 miles of the Mackenzie River. When they had their first child, she was 6 months old when their summer break began and they bundled her up and took her on a month long canoe trip down the Yukon in Alaska. Besides a tiny PFD they also made a sort of mini-raft that fit in the middle of the canoe, a baby cockpit so to speak that elevated her to where she could see what was going on and also functioned as her sleeping crib when they camped. We eventually lost touch when they moved out west but I heard that the daughter and a son they had later both grew up to become professional outdoor instructors and guides!
Kids can learn to float safely super young, my niece did. I have lost track of whether this is so for the OPer’s children. What generally takes longer is being a swimmer more than a floater, eg getting the ability to direct themselves should there be any current. That is why the ability to get to them quickly still matters.
This has been an interesting forum thread. I’ve enjoyed reading it. It made me think… and remember. I had almost completely forgotten about when, and how, I received my first swimming lesson.
It was 70+ years ago while visiting Haiti. Sitting by a swimming pool, with my parents nearby. A family friend walked by and asked me why I wasn’t enjoying the pool? “I don’t know how to swim…” I answered.
He picked me up, threw me into the water and while standing at the pool’s edge (and quite likely for him - with a daiquiri in one hand) began shouting instructions. Reflecting on more details about that experience - and remembering anything about whatever possible swimming success happened that day just isn’t possible for me anymore - but I would like to mention that there are definitely better ways to teach someone to swim.
…please forgive the interruption to the intended focus of this thread…
It is a funny story as long as you are around to tell it. My niece did baby swimming classes, still in diapers but they had the parents hold the kids up and used an array of floaties. It was interesting how naturally she and her classmates figured out holding their breath under water, it barely had to be taught.
That said, what we would call swimming did come later. The baby stuff was basically an organized float.
Bad advice. Certainly there are hundreds (thousands?) of cases where parents were supposedly being “comfortable” monitoring their child in and near the water when you later hear from them: “I was watching my child, I turned away for just a second and he was gone!”
I can’t make him do anything and he doesn’t seem to be all that interested in advice. Besides, the person I was responding to was talking about not taking young kids out, so in that regard, doing what he is comfortable with is perfectly reasonable advice
You don’t know what you don’t know until you have a kid but you can’t make them completely safe in every activity. That’s why bodys are so tough.
My wife’s teenage brother was taking a scuba class, did something he had been told not to do (went out alone) and the instructor didn’t stop him.
In spite of the immediate use of every search and rescue unit available, he was never found.