Can I teach my toddler to swim?

[Fiestyfish]

I’m currently paying a hideous amount to a franchise swimming school thing for my toddler. He’s grown in confidence but we seem to do the same stuff most weeks and he loses interest (and hates the waiting about/face masks while waiting/rushed changing after).
A local naice gym has a lovely pool we could go to a few times a week for half the price I’m paying for these lessons.
Has anyone taught their toddler to swim themselves? I’m happy to pay for lessons a bit later on if necessary but was hoping I might be able to teach him to float/tread water/maybe swim a little by myself? Is this mad? I can swim confidently but my technique and stamina could probably be improved on. Is this a mad idea?

What age is he?
Mine didn't start lessons until the age of 3 or 4

I don't think it's mad at all. As he's been fine with the swim school, you probably could. There are various sites around dedicated to different ways for parents to do it.

I've done so with an older child that at that age would not have worked, but it wouldn't have worked with swim school lessons either, she was just really anxious in the water (even baths). Their temperament plays a big part.

My dad taught me how to swim from early age. I was a quite confident swimmer by primary age, and was selected for school swimming team.( raised in a hot country.), despite never having any proper lessons.
So, I'm sure it's perfectly possible.

I think if you've done a term of lessons and observed what the first steps are from the teacher then you can definitely recreate that yourself.

Do it yourself until your DC is comfortable doing all the things they're currently being taught and then if you want to you can go back to lessons for a term. Observe and do the same again.

What they need is practise and they don't get enough of that in a 30 min swimming lesson once a week, they need the leisure time too imo. I think that's why so many kids master swimming on holiday, it's just being in the water for hours every day.

I taught DD to swim and I can't swim myself, Saturday morning's at the local pool, she swims like a fish now, I still haven't learnt to swim 🙄

Lots of people take their toddlers swimming themselves.
Mine could swim 25m, but not proper strokes, by 4. Plus tread water, knew to return to side, dive to the bottom of the pool etc. Proper strokes came later.

For most pre-schoolers, it's easy to do water confidence/ splashing around. Toddler lessons are unlikely (but not impossible) to produce a proper swimmer. The majority aren't ready to swim at that point. I did years of the toddler lessons because I liked having a lead session weekly and the times worked better than the casual slots, plus ours weren't at a premium price (council pool) I don't think my children have gained a substantial advantage from it. DS1 did his first lengths at 8-9. DS2 isn't there yet at 8, but has had significant disruption in the past year anc hasn't started school lessons yet.

Regularly going for a casual swim then booking onto lessons at school age is a strategy that works well as by that point far more children are ready to learn a better technique.

For most pre-schoolers, it's easy to do water confidence/ splashing around. Toddler lessons are unlikely (but not impossible) to produce a proper swimmer. The majority aren't ready to swim at that point. I did years of the toddler lessons because I liked having a lead session weekly and the times worked better than the casual slots, plus ours weren't at a premium price (council pool) I don't think my children have gained a substantial advantage from it. DS1 did his first lengths at 8-9. DS2 isn't there yet at 8, but has had significant disruption in the past year anc hasn't started school lessons yet.

Regularly going for a casual swim then booking onto lessons at school age is a strategy that works well as by that point far more children are ready to learn a better technique.

For most pre-schoolers, it's easy to do water confidence/ splashing around. Toddler lessons are unlikely (but not impossible) to produce a proper swimmer. The majority aren't ready to swim at that point. I did years of the toddler lessons because I liked having a lead session weekly and the times worked better than the casual slots, plus ours weren't at a premium price (council pool) I don't think my children have gained a substantial advantage from it. DS1 did his first lengths at 8-9. DS2 isn't there yet at 8, but has had significant disruption in the past year anc hasn't started school lessons yet.

Regularly going for a casual swim then booking onto lessons at school age is a strategy that works well as by that point far more children are ready to learn a better technique.

For most pre-schoolers, it's easy to do water confidence/ splashing around. Toddler lessons are unlikely (but not impossible) to produce a proper swimmer. The majority aren't ready to swim at that point. I did years of the toddler lessons because I liked having a lead session weekly and the times worked better than the casual slots, plus ours weren't at a premium price (council pool) I don't think my children have gained a substantial advantage from it. DS1 did his first lengths at 8-9. DS2 isn't there yet at 8, but has had significant disruption in the past year anc hasn't started school lessons yet.

Regularly going for a casual swim then booking onto lessons at school age is a strategy that works well as by that point far more children are ready to learn a better technique.

He’s just turned 2. Yeh I think part of the problem is the 30min lesson isn’t long enough and he’s just warming up and then it’s time to leave. Good idea about doing a term and then teaching!

I come from a big swimming family (sounds v wanky saying it like that, but basically all county swimmers, my job as a teen was as a swimming teacher and lifeguard, my mum still teaches tinies). One thing that makes me so angry is the huge expense of baby/toddler swimming lessons. There is no need for them. You are much much better off doing regular swims together at your local pool. Make it fun. Get one of those costumes with floats in so they can start to build confidence and get technique. Sit on the side and practice kicking legs. Then maybe at 4/5 think about lessons again.

I come from a big swimming family (sounds v wanky saying it like that, but basically all county swimmers, my job as a teen was as a swimming teacher and lifeguard, my mum still teaches tinies). One thing that makes me so angry is the huge expense of baby/toddler swimming lessons. There is no need for them. You are much much better off doing regular swims together at your local pool. Make it fun. Get one of those costumes with floats in so they can start to build confidence and get technique. Sit on the side and practice kicking legs. Then maybe at 4/5 think about lessons again.

Yes 100% just take them regularly and have fun. My youngest didn’t start ‘swim lessons’ until aged5, and then raced through all 7 levels in two years. She was not natural at all hated getting her face wet (unlike my eldest who was a water baby). But by just taking her regularly she had fun and felt comfortable being in the water floating and blowing bubbles by the time the ‘proper lessons’ started. Get some water toys rings,float & dive sticks to play with. Have fun.

I agree with the PP, there's no need for toddlers to go to swimming lessons. They didn't even used to be such things and the minimum age for lessons was 5 or having started primary school. If you can take him yourself it's just about splashing around, be confident in the water, getting your face wet, get him to blow bubbles under water, take bath toys to play with, jumping in, hold the side and kick his legs etc.

Mine never had swimming lessons we just went regularly as a family and slowly they got more confidence and we took the arm bands off to practice in shallow end.
Just learnt doggy paddle etc treading water and later the proper strokes.
We were always with them though until they were very confident and much older.
Just go swimming for fun and build up to it. I’ve always thought lessons were the biggest rip off but then some parents might not like swimming etc so it’s not for everyone.

I taught both mine. Had a costume with floats in and gradually removed most of them once they’d learned to relax and have fun and do
Some basic strokes.

I would stand about a yard from the side in the shallow end and get them to kick out towards me. The Next time, it would be A little bit further, and so on. Eventually they were doing it without any floats. Very soon after that, they tried widths and soon got it

'Swimming lessons' before the age of 3-4 are really just water confidence sessions. You absolutely can do that yourself, especially if you've attended some classes so know the types of activities that they do. Singing and splashing, underwater dunks, practise blowing bubbles etc. Get a good back float or SwimFin to aid buoyancy without giving them an unnatural position in the water if you want to give them some freedom to swim without you holding them all the time.
Then move to more formal classes in the year before they start school (or later if you want).

None of mine had proper lessons but we swam regularly as a family. All are confident swimmers now

Agree with PP. No need for lessons before about 4-5, getting them happy and comfortable in the water is the priority at pre-school age. If they are happy to be in the water, once they start lessons at 4-5 they will take to it quickly. I did take DC to pre-school lessons but it was 100% for me, not DC.

I had two frightening experiences with water as a child and was terrified of learning to swim. I was ten years old before I swam without armbands..
I was determined that ds2 wouldn't be the same.. We were extremely fortunate that an elderly couple from church had a heated covered pool in their garden with stone wall down steps. We used to take ds2 regularly and take his armbands off at the end and let him splash. One afternoon two weeks before his 5th birthday he struck off on his own and started swimming. It was the last big milestone his Dad saw as he died two weeks later. I'm so glad he got the chance to see him swimming.

Ok this all sounds fab, I’m glad other people have had success. I think I naively thought that the baby swimming we’ve been doing would mean he would swim by now or reasonably soon! Definitely before school age anyway!

We gave up on lessons and just taught our kids ourselves. They weren't swimming unaided as toddlers, but they were by about 4 or 5.

My parents didn't sign us up for lessons either - we just learnt by swimming with friends and family a lot.

I started my fourth child at lessons age 2, far younger than my other three children. It has not paid off! He has taken the longest to swim out of all of them!

I think you can but with my eldest the baby swimming was fab and she improved so much from 2-3 and I’d have not done nearly as much out of the class. Even though I’ve seen what my eldest did so could replicate I’m still keen to carry on with my youngest. Also getting a swimming slot for family swimming is basically impossible near me so lessons are the only chance we’re getting to swim. I’d triple check that your pool is easy to book and you don’t have to book a slot at midnight 5 weeks in advance.