It's a strange time of year, when all the seasons seem to happen within an afternoon. One moment it's blustery and raining, the next so sunny I check out the opening hours at the local swimming pool. But by the time we roll up the towels and find the shampoo, it's started raining again.

A shortcut is having a swimming bag permanently packed. I store one in the bottom of our suitcase, which is left there for holidays and plucked out for weekend visits to the leisure centre. And this bundle no longer contains regular towels. The best item of clothing I've ever bought for my kids are towelling ponchos. Unlike regular towels, which even an adult has trouble successfully wrapping around themselves, a poncho just slips over a child's head, so they're warm as soon as they emerge from the water. Ours even have hoods, which can be rubbed on their wet hair. They came from Blooming Marvellous (bloomingmarvellous.co.uk), look fantastic (the four-year-old twins have a dinosaur and witch, and the 12-year-old Bang on the Door). But they weren't cheap, so I have just two, and use them as a pattern to make more. I'm hopeless at any kind of handiwork, but even I can manage to make an old towel into a poncho, as it only involves sewing a few straight lines.

Another of our swimming items isn't so useful, but four-year-old River considers it far more essential. It's a Lycra, rubberised Spiderman swimming T-shirt, which at least very effectively protects him from the sun, if there is any. New company Kit2Fit also specialises in children's swimming products, and Young Explorers has their own version of the poncho, but with arms. Don't think I could manage to copy one of those.

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