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Learning how to swim is a very liberating experience. It is a feeling that you will not experience doing anything else! The weightless oneness of body and water is something that I enjoy year round with my family.
I grew up on a lake. My parents insisted that I learn to swim at a very young age due to the dangers of not knowing how. I was 4 when the last floatation device came off and I "free swam". It only got better after that.

I can now tread water for more than an hour tirelessly, almost effortlessly. I can swim very long distances in many forms, crossing lakes and reservoirs.
Swimming to me doesn't mean in a pool, in a lane doing either the butterfly or breast stroke. It means being in the water over my head and not drowning. Enjoying the ability to go underwater and dive below my height, twisting and spinning in that dark liquid environment.
My children were introduced to the water as infants. No, I didn't throw them in the deep end and leave them underwater like some families I've read about. But I took them in pools, let them feel the cool water on their feet, butts, backs and heads. I have three girls and they all learned at different ages. My first daughter was 2 years old and jumping off of the diving board, hitting the water and swimming underwater to the edge coming up with a big smile saying, "Again!" Observers couldn't believe it.
To start, become used to being in the water. Go out deeper and deeper up to your chest or neck. Begin with some light hopping from one foot to the next putting your arms out to the sides like an airplane. Feel the difference in your bodies gravity under water? Swim underwater, not blocking your nose, but blowing out slowly as you swim nearer toward shore. At about waist deep, float on your stomach, holding your breath and relaxing every part of your body completely. This is called dead man's float. If a dead man can float, you certainly can! You'll immediately see that your body will automatically float, not sink.
Go out to chest deep and again, hold your breath and put your legs out so as to sit on the bottom. You'll find that the only way not to float is to release air from your lungs and push the water over your head with your outstretched arms.
You see, once you are not ignorant to how water and your body works, you'll have less reason to be afraid. Once you are no longer afraid, you will be able to swim.
Once you're comfortable with depths that you can touch bottom, then you can explore the wonderful

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