6 yr old 5 yr old can't swim

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Since my children were born ive rarely taken them swimming as I live to far from a swimming pool and didn't own a car.
Im now close to a pool and I can get there.

Whenever I've managed to take them swimming ( twice during the holidays ☹️)
They do take their arm bands off for 15 mins and try and swim but just don't have a clue. I have tried teaching them but they don't get it

My eldest is desperate to swim as all her friends can afford lessons after school .
She practices in the bath putting her head underwater and holding her breath .but my youngest is still a bit hesitant ( she will do it but doesn't like to )

My family say wait until they get free lessons in school .

I'm now terrified about them being near big body's of water as I want them to learn and I want to get rid of my anxiety

Now I can I'd like to take them every Saturday for an hour in the kids pool
Any advice ?, Anyone late learners ?

As an adult who can't swim - get them lessons. It's a massive pain in the arse and not easy once you're full-sized and nervous.

Both of mine learned without lessons.We had swim vests with removable floats. The great thing about those is that they are not very restrictive (like armbands). As the child gets better, you remove floats so the vest becomes less boyant.

Get a pool noodle put it under their armpits so when they are in s laying down position it is across their chest, put a toy in front of them and encourage them to reach for it with 'lion arms' I.e basic front crawl technique.

Have left 4yo (nearly 5) as they asked did I think he'd walk around to the side of the pool without messing etc and honestly I think he might get distracted or something but I'd say by early next year when he'll be 5 he might be ready. I'd echo the person above who says school lessons teach kids very little-we couldn't afford lessons til this year and two of my kids have 3 and 4 years of school lessons and in a few weeks of public lessons have learned more which doesn't totally make sense!! I'd say totally go for it

My sons were very frightened of the water, 9 year old is now over that and learning to swim and Absolutely loves it and is really good, he does school swimming in January so was keen not to wear the floatation things they give them. He does private lessons so expensive at £9 per lesson for group of 4 Youngest who is 8 still terrified so no chance quite yet.
Older 2 did normal lessons and both good swimmers it’s important for them, even if you put one into lessons then the other, don’t wait for school as it’s not comprehensive enough. A lot of places let you pay by dd (used to be lump sum when my older boys learned. So it’s easier but I’m a single parent so know how these things add up.

Our local pools have a deal where if you pay for swimming lessons by direct debit (£24/month) they can do any other swim session for free. Is there anything similar?

The more you go, the quicker they learn. We just went and mucked about in the water a lot to start with. Lessons are good for knowing that they will go each week too.

I wouldn't wait for the school lessons. There's a lot of children of varying abilities in the pool at once - not the best learning opportunity and it is not til they're 8 at our school.

Wow thanks for all the advice everyone I'll take it all on board and ditch the arm bands.

School lessons tend to be few in number and with too many children to actually teach much.
Take them regularly to play in the pool.
Remove armbands as they undermine water confidence. Let them just splash around and jump in and out or use slide.
A foam sausage is a good first step for leg kicking practice and to give them something to aim for when pushing off from the side.

If you can go for proper swimming lessons, do so but as an add on rather than replacement.

Keep taking them. It’s embarrassing to get to eight or nine and be the only one who can’t swim.

How many school lessons do they get a year? With us it’s six 30min for the whole year due to cut backs, not enough to learn to swim. It’s not like the olden days when you actually had enough lessons to learn to swim - I’d point that out to your relatives!

I’d get the arm bands off them, get them blowing bubbles, practicing doing a starfish float and just having fun in the pool so as they are confident.

With Christmas coming I’d ask for a token present & money towards lessons.

As a child, I hated swimming, which everyone else seemed to revere so much: the getting wet, the chlorine, water in my eyes, feeling cold getting out of the pool, being the only one in armbands, being nagged that I had to learn this vital life skill. (The more people nagged me about anything, the more I resisted.) I didn't have lessons at school until I was 8. My secondary school had its own pool: various teachers tried hard to teach me, even getting in the pool with me and holding me, but I just couldn't do it. When being told to jump into the shallow end: forget it!! I wanted to crack swimming if only to shut the adults up, and I could do all the movements, but every time I tried ditching the armbands or the hand-held floats, I just sank: I was very skinny and didn't float naturally until I was older. I was one of the few who left that school as a non-swimmer, and I didn't go near any pools as a young adult.

There is a happy ending though: aged 24 I decided on a whim to take myself down to the local pool, having been on holiday somewhere hot and only able to splash about in the pool, and suddenly I found I could swim. Just like that. I was in the shallow end, and my arms were long enough that I could touch the floor of the pool while on the surface, so I could stop myself sinking - that finally clinched it for me. I then swam and swam, and did all the things I had missed out on as a child: swimming in the deep end, diving in, water slides. I made a triumphant return to my old school pool, which was occasionally open to the public. (I even tried scuba diving, but I found that very difficult and scary.) I had a few one-to-one lessons to improve my swimming technique.

I sometimes wonder what might have helped me more: perhaps swimming as a baby (which I never did) might have helped me get used to water. Perhaps a noodle might have helped, as I only used armbands or the hand-held floats. I do remember certain things which did help, such as the exercise of breathing out while putting my head under water: this really helped me overcome fear of going under and getting water up my nose.

Save up a few months for lessons as they are expensive, especially for 2 children, but start taking them regularly for a play swim. Children learn through play. Buy some swim toys and get in the water with them. Then do some lessons but continue to take them for a play swim. We haven’t done many lessons as they are expensive but we do try and get them swimming as often as we can. This is a great age, definitely not too old, but it’s a good idea to use their enthusiasm now to get them practising as I think when they are older they will become self conscious/ anxious and it will be more difficult then. And I don’t think it’s a good idea to just rely on school lessons.

I learnt to swim very well without lessons just from my parents taking us regularly, though I've signed my own DC up because I was useless at teaching them!

For balance, at a school swimming lesson in our city there were only about 4 out of 12 kids without armbands, and two other big groups in the kiddie pool just splashing and kicking their legs.

If you can't afford lessons then just take them regularly - if they enjoy the water they'll grow in confidence

My DS learned to swim in the school lessons.

He was put in the shallow end group and because he's quite competitive at school he almost willed himself to do it and eventually got moved up to the deep end group.
This was in yr 4 and now in yr6 they're having swimming lessons again for a full term.

I think the teachers are quite good.

The only time we swim a lot is on holidays, apart from that it's just when we have time, which is not often.

Agree with the poster who said buy a float or a noodle. Then your DD can practise the legs part while using the float. In the lessons at school they then put the floats between their legs and practice the arms too.

Good luck!