Is there much point to a 6-year-old having swimming lessons?

[Thesnailonthewhale]

My 6-year-old can swim maybe around 8 to 10. M in a sort of recognised stroke. She's currently in stage 3 lessons . I'm just thinking of taking an eight of lessons because she isn't getting that much from them and spending a lot of time standing around, waiting for her turn to go up and down the pool etc. we swim at least one other time apart from the lessons and would replace the swimming lesson with a family swim where I'd make her practise. We do the practise anyway on our weekend swim. So should be practising at least twice a week, about 10 to 15 minutes each time, which is probably more that she gets out of the 25-minute lesson anyway.

Am I missing something?

I don't need her to be able to do butterfly or breaststroke or anything. Just be able to swim across the pool and then naturally grow her stamina as she gets older. She's a million % confident in the water but also safe. she'll dive down to the bottom of the two to three metre pool to collect weights etc.

I'm just thinking I could save myself 40 odd pound a month

I’d be looking for other swimming lesson venues before quitting altogether.

DC3 is also in Stage 3, and usually in his lessons they have the children either swimming all together or in groups, so there’s not much standing around for the children.

I do think that Stage 3 is a bit early to stop though. All of the kids in DC3’s stage 3 class still need to do a lot of work on their swimming techniques.

I could only really do backstroke and front crawl as a child. I can now do breaststroke but wasn’t taught it.

My DD is 8 and can only do 25M breaststroke as I didn’t start her lessons until 6 as she was petrified of water.
She’s confident in her lessons and does very well.
However, when we took her on holiday, in the pool with everyone else’s families she was completely overwhelmed and that was with both me and DP at each side of her.

Swimming is a survival skill.
So I wouldn’t recommend stopping swimming lessons until she can save her own life if she gets into trouble in the water.
10M won’t save her.
Can she float?
Can she tread water?
Can she swim any length under water yet?

8-10m is nothing and wouldn’t be bought to get her out of a sticky situation if she was ever in one. Keep going. I was swimming lengths of the pool at that age.

There are some people talking absolute bollocks on this thread.

Anyway. I do think leisure centre lessons can be a bit poor, with a lot of hanging around and not much technique. She would come on a lot more with a crash course of one to one lessons over Easter. Pair that with your family swimming, and she'll fly up through the next stage.

Swimming and swimming confidently is one of the best skills you can give your child.
I always vowed that having only had the most basic of school lessons as a child, my children would be taught properly. I won’t go into details but my brother and I almost drowned in a pool on the basic skills we had (no lifeguard or adults about)
My girls were in lessons from babies and carried on all the way through to life saving level.
They really loved swimming and got so much out of our holidays being able to swim well. My eldest even got her open water PADI qualification as soon as she was allowed to.

Does she enjoy the lessons OP? If not maybe try a new group? I'm always surprised at the number of posters who view swimming like driving lessons. They send their children, want to see tangible improvement and talk of stopping at a certain level.

I agree somewhat OP. My 7DD is in stage 4 and I've been surprised how quickly she's progressed so the lessons have been great for her so far - but I wonder how much more I think it's worth the money. We swim most weekends so she's getting time in the water, I imagine her confidence will only grow through that.

BUT, she only started lessons in September. Before that, and from what I've seen from the younger children splashing about in stage 1&2, it seems to be a massive waste of money. The family swimming is where she got her confidence, the lessons have improved her form.

I'll keep her in lessons til stage 5 probably, but if I'd been paying for lessons for 4 years already I'd be tempted to stop at this stage too.

Have you tried her out for a club, and this was their assessment? Or is it just what you think? I grew up in the competitive swimming world and there are clubs that take everyone (and teach beginners aged 5+ to county and regional level swimmers) and some who need children to confidently swim 25m in deep water, for example, to be able to benefit from the coaching.

Swimming in my house is a non negiotiable life skill, same as reading, writing and maths. My 6 year old has been "swimming" since he was a few months old, but in the last year has got to the stage where he is training twice a week (for an hour at a time) with all 4 strokes doing around 800m per session in a combination of fins, arm, leg technique. This is rare, and I know that most other children his age are not at this level but he loves it, and I want him to get to the point where he is fully competent in a variety of settings, including in the sea/rivers when snorkelling/diving/water sports as this is what we enjoy doing as a family on holiday. I dont care whether he has perfect butterfly, but I care about whether he will be able to save himself in a situation that he hopefully will never get into. Right now, he is too young to stop swimming even though yes, in a pool context he is pretty good.

In addition to being a former elite swimmer, I am a swimming teacher (and lifeguard) but my son just sees swim sessions with me as a fun game. I tried to teach him when he was a non swimmer and it was awful - if you think you can really teach her yourself properly then go for it (as what you have descibed from your lesson experience is really poor, ime, and I would be questioning if it was worth it too) but I would also explore what other options are available locally as otherwise you/she will likely regret it when she is older. The difference between children who can "swim" and children who can actually SWIM will be vast by the time they start swimming "lessons" at school aged 8/9 or so and it will then be difficult to catch up again as other hobbies will take priority and she (presumably) wont like being with younger kids.

I think she should stay in lessons but maybe try somewhere else? I feel like 8-10m isn't that great for someone that's been in lessons a while? Just for perspective my 3 year old got her 15m unaided, and there's nothing special about her (well obviosuly I think there is, but you know what I mean.) she's just had good lessons.

Absolutely do not take her out of lessons. Being able to swim and knowing how to help yourself when you get into trouble are 2 different things. The lessons will move on to survival skills once they have mastered the strokes. The survival skills are the most important bit. If I remember rightly it is Level 6 and then Level 7 is lifeguarding - which is a nice to have to save other people but being able to save yourself is the lost important bit.

Learning to swim is an important life skill and your child sounds as if they are doing very well so far.

I would certainly look at dropping lessons …. but you will have to continue taking her regularly and getting in the water too of course.
I never had any lessons as a kid, neither did my children (too pricey in our area anyway). I was taught by my mother who was an average swimmer (dad had never learned), and I then went on and taught my kids because we went to the pool together as an outing. We all swim competently, as in 50 lengths of front crawl in public pool is a regular thing.
I’m always rather saddened when I see parents ticking the ‘swimming lessons’ box and just scrolling on their phones at the side when the lesson’s in progress. Swimming together with your little ones is such a lovely, bonding activity.
Fair enough if a parent is a non-swimmer or no budget to pay the pool entry fee, but dare I say, it can come across as parents can’t be bothered to get wet themselves …

You’re doing her a huge disservice if she can’t do breast stroke. 90% of the adults swimming at my local pool are doing breast stroke, and it’s the only swimming stroke I’ve done since I was about 10.

I also wouldn’t stop a child doing lessons until they can do a 25m length of the pool in more than one stroke so that they can always swim themselves out of the deep end even if tired out with one stroke.

If It helps OP, DD is 5 and has been in weekly lessons since the age of 2 or 3 and she’s nowhere close to splashing through 20 lengths, or 15m using the correct stroke etc. The magic of Mumsnet, eh.

OP, not to criticise but my 4y.o. (will be 5 in a month) can swim for about 10m (the technique is still not 100% correct) and dive. Has been having classes once a week in the last 2 years. I actually thought that my dc is being behind, and should be able to do more at this age.

At 6 I would expect much more (of course if you have been doing it regularly for a while).

She can get herself along 25m, just not in recognised and consistent stroke. She can do it for about 10m.

But I'm under no illusions I'm not that she *can swim 25m"

I do not think she's behind in any way at all, I'm just wondering if it's worth the time and money.

No need to aim for the lowest common denominator though is there? DS went swimming with school, and about half of his class had never been swimming before (inner city London, lots of families where culturally nobody swims). Does that mean it’s fine for my DS to never learn to swim? Nope, because we are by the sea most of the summer, swimming and paddle boarding and snorkelling, so he needs to be safe.

If you aren’t bothered about your child being able to swim, absolutely pull them out of lessons. But keep them well away from pools and open water (so no beach holidays, no hotel pools). If you do want your child to be able to swim, level 3 doggy paddling less than a width is nowhere near a competent swimmer.

I was shocked how little swimming was in the lessons even in the higher groups.

If you are confident in the water it makes a big difference. I had no trouble taking mine in the deep end.

I was tempted to do the swimming teacher course myself as it would probably work out cheaper than all the lessons!

Keep her in lessons this will be the biggest life saving skill it's so important and makes a huge difference to her chances off downing !
Best thing I did getting both kids in swimming lessons it pays back in dividends!

Well for how long has she been doing it? If she started a few/several months ago then it's a good progress and they are doing the job.

If a couple of years then I would expect a stronger progress and I would try another place.

I am like your daughter - I can swim 25m with no technique and it's a massive struggle. Never had lessons and see massive difference in how my parents thought me vs how the trainer is teaching my DC.

Also agree with other posters that she should now be waiting for that long. In my DC class, for example, there is plenty of exercises that all 4 of them are doing at the same time. They have to queue only for jumping or more complex stuff.

I think it really is worth it. My kids are not sporty athletic kids, but love water sports so it was what I saw as the way of keeping them
active. They hated running or chucking balls about or any of that sort of sport, but waterspouts were fun for them.
They both hit the “swim 50 meters in the sea” rule when they were 7ish and that’s when they got into surfing. They’d been swimming it in a pool for longer but it’s tougher in the sea.

If I hadn’t stuck at the swimming lessons then they’d never have tried water sports and would be very inactive teens now.

It’s worth sticking with, but if she hasn’t made any progress for months then really consider that the teaching she is getting isn’t good enough. It might be her, but it really might be the swim school so it’s worth trying private lessons to see if you can get her along a bit.

I agree with this. I honestly think all these parents who spends fortunes and weeks of their time going to regular swimming lessons from newborn is just a bit of a middle class gimmick.

I learnt to swim on a weeks holiday when I was about 5/6. Had no experience of it before. I plan on doing something similar with my small children.

No one needs to be able to do butterfly. It's a ridiculous stroke. Breast stroke is essential. Freestyle is good. Backstoke is good mostly for knowing that you can swim on your back and move in the water.

If you don't think she's doing well in group lessons then get her into a smaller group or solo lessons. If you as a parent are an excellent swimmer then there's nothing the matter with you teaching her as the stage 3 vs stage 5 is of no consequence if she can actually swim well.

fyi - ex lifeguard and a great swimmer. Even taught my DH to swim effectively and gain a reasonable confidence at swimming. Part of that confidence was to know when he shouldn't be swimming - like in strong tides or without others around.

I’m a confident swimmer, and I frequently take the DC swimming, but one of the big reasons I currently have DC3 in formal swimming lessons is that he just won’t listen to me or DH when we’ve tried to teach him anything about swimming.

If me or DH are in the pool with him, well, as far as he’s concerned, it’s family fun time, and he’s too excited at the opportunity to play in the water with whichever family members are there to concentrate at all on any instructions about swimming technique. All great fun as far as DC3’s concerned, but it does not do much for improving his swimming.

Whereas when he’s in the formal swimming lessons, he’s actually paying attention to the instructor, which means his swimming is improving.

It’s not always about parents not wanting to get wet themselves 🙄

Daughter is 10 and still having lessons, she is learning butterfly and diving. It’s great for fitness and stamina too.