Had anyone taught their own child to swim?

[bentleydrummle]

We must have spent £100s over the years on swimming lessons until covid, and now we are on a waiting list for lessons again. Ds1 who is 10 can do all strokes beautifully but ds2 who is 7 can only manage doggy paddle. He can keep himself afloat but has no technique whatsoever....I am a pretty strong swimmer and I am wondering if instead of going back to formal lessons I could try and teach him the proper strokes myself....has anyone done this??

I'd give it a go, sometimes just spending more time in the water with a bit more freedom to go at your own pace helps. Obviously with the lessons there are both time constraints and have to follow the structure of them. If he doesn't improve can always go back. I taught DS to swim myself, as he loves it will probably enrol him in a swim club in the future if he still does.

Yes, I taught my children to swim. It was easy. We played in the water every day on holiday, and in between playing we did stroke practise which we made into a game. Effortless way to learn!

I taught my nephew to swim, he'd had a few formal lessons but just couldn't get the hang of it. He didn't like the strict structure and didn't have any confidence. We started with basics, floating and treading water. He actually learned backstroke first because he felt more confident that way.

We got a framed pool for the garden last year and my then 6yo taught himself how to swim.

I had two life threatening incidents with water as a child so consequently I was terrified of water and didn't learn to swim until I was 10.
I was determined ds was not going to be the same. We had friends with a private pool and we used to take him every afternoon.. The pool had walk in concrete steps so at the end of every swim I would take ds armbands off. One afternoon just before he was five he suddenly went off on his own and swum DH and I were 🤯 🤯 🤯 🤯... It was the last milestone DH saw as he passed away shortly after. 😔 😔 😔

Depends entirely on whether your child is willing to learn from you, how patient you are and if you know the proper technique. Sometimes it can be good for them to learn from someone else. If you swim regularly with them, a private lesson every couple of months might be worth more than a class.

DH taught our daughter to swim at around age 5, just by going weekly with her to our local leisure centre. She’s never had any ‘formal’ lessons, but is as good, if not better than friends who’ve had swimming lessons for years. We also didn’t bother with baby swimming/puddle ducks etc, I think the first time she went in a pool she was around age 2, almost 3.

You need a very compliant child who'll listen to you (I don't have this variety) and enough space to be able to do it an environment where they can hear you. At "family float fun" there normally seems to be someone trying to teach their child but it can't be easy amongst the general cacophony.

People clearly do manage to do it. The other thing to consider is do you just want them water confident and staying afloat with a recognisable stroke, or a more effective polished stroke which tends to be better from proper tutition.

I taught my son to swim when he was 8 - I was having real trouble finding suitable tuition and decided to give it a go myself. I found the SwimtoFly YouTube channel incredibly helpful as there are some great tutorials for each stroke. We were quite lucky as managed to find a time at our local pool that was very quiet. I really enjoyed it and found it very satisfying!

Thanks - will check out that you tube channel

He is very water confident and comfortable - eg he dives down to get the sinking toys from the bottom, but has no kind of stroke at all

We taught our kids to swim, the youngest got lessons once she was a pretty goood swimmer to improve her stroke and learn to dive. (waste of money)
We went swimming 4 or 5 times a week, lived in a hot country, it was all play based, they all learned to swim underwater first, not sure why. We played jumping in from a young age, then getting things off the bottom of the pool, and slowly they learned proper strokes watching other kids and moved on from the doggie paddle.
They were determined to learn as they wanted to join the other kids in the pool playing sharks and minnows.

My eldest just taught himself to swim aged 7 while on holiday. If he's water confident already, then he will do it himself if he spends long enough in a pool