To teach DS to swim myself and forget the teachers?

[witherhills]

I'm sick of it
Five minutes of the lesson wasted while the teacher talks to parents of the previous lesson about their precious child, while I have to hold DS back from jumping in
Dilly dallying in the middle of the pool to flirt with the male instructor
Not actually being able to manage the children if they are a bit distracted
Just doing the same thing over and over

Or should I respect the fact that they are the trained professionals?

i have taught 3 out of 4 or mine to swim at about 4 or 4.5 probably could have done it younger but what's the point.
.don't bother with floats etc.Hold them under their arms in the correct swimming position and get them to kick, then when they can 'swim' like that, hold their hands and do same thing til they have lots of stamina, then have them swim with your arm underneath them supporting them less and less.

Do it! I taught my dd myself because she was terrified of a shouty teacher that had put her off completely. We looked on youtube together at training videos, set little goals each time and a really lovely treat for when she could swim a width. We also bought some of those diving sticks which were brilliant fun. There were a couple of frustrating times but within 3 weeks she was swimming with confidence. We have carried on in the same way for several months now and it has been such a lovely experience!

My DSs were different.

I am a really good swimmer and grew up in a warm climate - I say this because if you are hot (in temperature!) and have a pool at hand as a kid - you swim a lot.

I taught DS1 myself - basically because I was young and broke and a cheap day out was to the pool. I also got him swimming lessons which he just messed around in and they were a waste of my money. I taught him to dive and swim underwater using bits of crap to search for. Knowing that I was a good enough swimmer to be down there with him and pull him up if anything went wrong.

With DS2 - I was older and had more money and sent him to a teacher - I watched carefully but did far less hands on swimming with him.

Result - DS1 is as strong a swimmer as me and DS2 is a shite "English" swimmer. I have tried to correct his attitude to water.

I think if you are a good swimmer yourself - just spend loads of time playing in the pool.

when i was a child no one had swimming lessons and it was the norm for us to learn from our parents in the local lido on a saturday morning. The water was freezing but we managed to survive.
We learnt via playing in the water with our mum or dad supporting our tummies then when we were confident splashing around they just let go and we seemed to just swim away.

I taught my own boys to swim by letting them play in the water until they were confident with being splashed/heads going under ect and then just letting more and more air out of their armbands. Didn't take more than a couple of goes and they were swimming. They were about 3 and 4 at the time and are both now teenagers and are both strong swimmers.

I had a massive go at the swimming teachers at our local leisure centre. DS was in a group lesson and because he was nervous he got totally ignored. Complete waste of money and he lost his confidence entirely.

We're taking him to another pool and teaching him ourselves from now on.