Kids scuba diving in Crete

It starts on land, and it starts slowly. Giannis shows your child the equipment, lets them hold the regulator and breathe from it before it ever goes near the water, and explains the few signals that matter: OK, not OK, up. Children take in far more when they have touched the thing than when they have been told about it.

Then shallow water, where they can stand. The first breaths underwater happen with their head just below the surface and their feet on the bottom, so the answer to any worry is to stand up. Most children stop worrying about the second or third breath and start worrying that the fish will leave.

Only when they are relaxed do we move along the bottom, still shallow, still in a sheltered bay, with the instructor at arm's length the whole time. We watch for cold, for ears, and for the moment attention runs out, and we end the session there rather than at the clock.

We are an SSI centre. SSI has its own programmes for young divers, the best known being Scuba Rangers, and its regular courses have junior versions for children who are old enough to certify. The skills are the ones adults learn, taught at a child's pace and with limits on depth that suit their age.

Which of these fits your child depends first on their age, and then on how they are in the water. We will not print a minimum age here and have you plan a holiday around it. Message us with the age and a line about your child, and we will tell you what we can offer on your dates.

Bubblemaker is PADI's name for a child's first time breathing underwater, in water shallow enough to stand in. It is a good idea and a trademark, and as an SSI centre we do not sell a programme under that name.

What we do is the same idea: a supervised first breath underwater in calm, shallow water, with an instructor beside your child and nothing that has to be achieved. If a Bubblemaker is what you had in mind, that is what to ask us for, and we will tell you how our version works for a child of your child's age.

If you dive, you can dive while your child is in good hands, or share their first session from the shallows. If you do not, you are not stuck on the beach watching a bag. Snorkellers can often stay on the surface above the same shallow water, and the full-day boat carries divers, first-timers and people who just want to be on the water.

Be realistic about the boat with younger children, though. A full day is about eight hours afloat, and that is a long time for a small child who is not in the water. For most families, a morning in the bay suits better.

The old harbour of Damnoni slopes gently from the beach with no sudden edges. It is where we take snorkellers for their first go with a mask, and it is the kind of water a child can learn in: shallow, clear and sheltered. The south coast faces away from the weather that roughens the north of the island, so calm mornings are common.

Children also see more than you expect. An octopus in a crack or a cuttlefish changing colour over the sand is at eye level in shallow water, and a child who has spotted one will talk about it all the way through dinner.