Best age to start swimming lessons?

[TruffleMonkey]

I'd like DD (3.5) to start them, DH thinks it's too early so just thought I'd ask opinions!

Thanks 😀

I taught mine to be able doggy paddle to the side of the pool at about 4.5 and then started lessons after that to learn to do different strokes.

Taught my own... from being 6 weeks old.
We went every week.
We are all water babies and still go.. adult daughters and teen Grandkids.
One of best things you can do is teach your kids to swim.
We used to go to mother and baby / toddler swim too.
If you can't do this.. as soon as there is a swim lessons for any age please go.. my great neice started age two but one parent had to get in pool with her.

I don't think there is a best age for lessons. I think get them used to being in the water as soon as possible but actual lessons is IMO more whatever suits the child.
One of mine didn't have any lessons until 7, we tried at 4 and he just messed about so just went swimming regularly until he was older and calmer! He now swims 16 hours a week and competes at national level.
My other 3 had lessons from a younger age and swim well enough but all just plodded through the levels and are not as enthusiastic about it.

I'm sure swimming lessons never used to start until primary school age until someone saw a money making venture for teaching younger kids. A lot of toddler aged stuff is just water confidence which you can do yourself if you take them swimming regularly. A lot of younger kids can't cope with the structure or instructions from a formal lesson.

I was about three months when I was first taken in the sea. You should start ASAP. Swimming and water confidence is a very important life skill. It could save her life. Do you take her to the pool and just have fun?

My DD started at 4 and for the first year it was painful. She had to be bribed and coerced every week to get in the pool. She's now 6 and loves it but I'm not sure she gained much from starting earlier.

My nephew started when he was 7 or 8 and progressed up the levels really quickly to the same standard as the other kids his age. If I was to go back I might be tempted to start later.

I think 5 yo is a good age to start as they have the concentration by then. My friends all did water babies etc and I just took my kids to the family swim sessions every now and then and they all swim the same - you can’t tell any different!!

Swim regularly as a family, teach them water confidence and doggy paddle, floating, jumping in the deep end and surfacing etc yourself. Play games and make it fun.

Once they can do all of that, then get them in swimming lessons to learn proper technique.

Group swimming lessons tend to be a lot of standing around waiting for other people to do things and being told off for dunking under the water with very minimal swim time. You can save yourself time and money by doing the first 3 stages yourself, Swim England levels are available free online and then have them go straight in grade 4 when they start swimming properly and working on technique and stamina.

I did the above, DD started proper lessons at 7 straight in at grade 4 and a year later was in grade 7 and swam a mile during their distance week and joined a comp team.

Water confidence and SAFETY... ASAP.

Swimming strokes... when they are safe and confident enough that they will listen and enjoy it.

It massively varies.
DS1 could swim a length by the time he was three
DS2 hated swimming at that age, he had private lessons later on, I think the early lessons put him off
DD love swimming lessons at that age, but didn’t swim confidently until she was 6.

I'd say from 4, this is when independent lessons start.

We went every week for fun something to do from when DTs were around 3.5, it was too painful before that. Went into lessons at 4.5. They wouldn't have been able able to cope with the lessons before that as both hypermobile and didn't have the strength to be honest to swim strokes. Finished the ASA course just before they turned 7 when covid hit and showed no inclination to go on to rookie lifesavers etc. They swim for fun with their friends now and on holiday but they are water safe and solid swimmers.

3.5 is the earliest I’d consider starting and then only if you can find proper lessons for that age locally. In my area the leisure centre lessons are 4+ and to get proper lessons for a 3 year old it’s private 1:1 or 2:1 and very expensive so if you’re going down that route you want to be confident DC has the listening skills needed to follow instructions. Not all do at 3.5 and that’s fine, but if that’s your DC then I would wait 6 months! Toddler group lessons where you get in the pool with them do nothing that you can’t achieve by taking them yourself, and aren’t proper swimming lessons so personally if that’s what you’re looking at then I wouldn’t bother unless you’re happy to view it as a social thing.

Where I am they can start them at 4. However, we went swimming every weekend as a family, more water confidence than swimming and from them being babies. Ds2 learned to jump off the side and swim underwater before surfacing and expecting a parent to be there to hold him up as he couldn't actually swim on the surface. He was 3.

We didn't do weekly lessons instead we put them in an intensive holiday swim course being held at a private school which they did daily from 4 because we were swimming with them weekly. They went from wearing those disc arm band things to swimming unaided.

Weekly lessons I feel are only good if the child is also swimming outside of that lesson. It also depends on the lessons. We were in a gym so the pool was used for one on one or one on 5 swimmers, we picked up techniques from watching them, ie learning front crawl with a float for the breathing technique. Never paid for any more lessons except that initial 2 week intensive course where the instructors were in the water with the children.

It’s never too early to start swimming imo.

An advantage of starting before primary school is they will be use to it by the time they start school and hopefully not too tired. I found the stamina of each of my children varied based on the amount of activities they did pre school. My older 2 did swimming with preschool so were use to it, my middle one was in a preschool that would spend 2/3hours walking everyday, she was less tired when starting school. My youngest was a toddler when lockdown happened and only did preschool 4 half days a week with no extra activities and struggled with being tired starting school.

Water confidence and safety is very important and I’d get your child started on that ASAP. My DS started lessons at 4, though the company I went with (Puddleducks) does lessons from baby. The main aim of lessons for that age is teaching the child what to do if they fall in, it’s all about floating and getting back to safety, whether that’s an adult’s arms or the wall. Once they’ve mastered that it’s on to the swim academy lessons where they start learning strokes but still with a big emphasis on water safety

I think it varies by child, not every child loves swimming and some benefit more from quieter parent-led sessions than group lessons. My eldest really enjoys lessons and has been going since she was 3.5, my youngest has been much slower to get comfortable in the water and probably won't start lessons until she's in Reception.

I see the benefits of regular lessons as more than just teaching the mechanics of swimming, it's also the benefits of regular exercise and showing your child that it's worth making time for, as well as practising a skill. I wouldn't be as good a teacher as her instructors, nor could I guarantee finding time for us to go and practice every week. Our nearest pool runs lessons after school which is convenient and affordable, and I'm happy to pay for lessons until she finishes stage 7.

I started before he was even born. I used to play a recording of the sounds of the busy swimming baths through headphones and put them on my pregnant belly. When he was born, the first thing I did was get some tiny bespoke armbands made for bath time, where I'd have a chlorine scented diffuser going so he could be immersed in the sensory experience of swimming. I had the swimming pool rules printed out on big monochrome cards and had them made into a special mobile, so he could start learning how to conduct himself early on.

You can never start too soon, OP.

Round here you need to start at age 4 as children already in lessons always get priority over new children for the next stage up. If you don't start early it's almost impossible to get in.

Age 4.5 for 'formal' lessons. Before that, regular play swimming is better for boosting their confidence.

I started swimming lessons with my boy when he was about 12 weeks old. Of course at that age it’s much more about me than him and I suppose thereafter was more water confidence etc, but he still absolutely loves his weekly lessons and swims independently rather well now, really confidently too, at just-turned 3yo.

It's not too early. There are parents and baby classes for children much younger than yours. I think the earlier the better to get them used to the water

I started both mine as babies. 3.5 certainly not too young. If you want your dc to be a really good, confident, swimmer do NOT rely on the few terms of lessons at school. Intensive holiday courses as mentioned up thread are brilliant. Mine kept at it until they finished level 7.

We went swimming regularly when I was on maternity leave but I think we started lessons at about 3?

I do think swimming can be a sensory overload - if you dont go regularly, it's a lot to expose them to it at 7 & expect them to enjoy lessons but as PP have said, it depends on the kid.

Personally, I say get it done and out of the way. I said they could stop if they wanted when they got their 1000m badge - done by age 8 ✅

I didn’t do it but a few friends recommended intense swimming courses, for example each morning during a half term. They all said their DC benefited more from this than from one or two terms of normal lessons.