Are pre school swimming lessons worth the huge expense?

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I need to make a decision about whether I renew for next term for two dc. It will be to the tune of £300 for the term. DD1 is 4 and is a bit nervous in the pool. DD2 likes water but I think she has little understanding and doesn't always follow instructions e.g kick your legs.
DH goes in the pool with them (consecutive lessons) whilst I dry and dress the girls and don't have to worry about having fanjo tidied up

When did your dc learn to swim? I didn't learn to swim in the swimming lessons we went to at school as had horrid shouty instructors. Am still not a confident swimmer. So want to get it right for dc but what worked for you?

R0tring - young children can indeed get to a certain standard, but it's the next level up they can't understand the instructions for, and there they plateau whilst everyone catches up.
Eg, a child can learn to swim frontcrawl with face under at 2 years old. Wonderful, take a video and put it on Facebook. But, they basically just swim far as they can on one breath, and then bring their head up forward to breathe. They don't understand the timing of breathing to the side. I've had all sorts of weird interpretations of a 3 year old trying to learn breathing to the side. They then stay in that stage whilst everyone catches up, sometimes for longer, as they're so used to breathing forward, it needs to be unlearnt and start again.

It's certainly possible for 6 year old to learn to swim 1km in a year. They're strong enough, you need good core strength and balance for swimming which 3 year olds don't have.

My advice is to take your under 5 swimming for fun as a family as regularly as you can.
Lessons at 5.

If you do the above, by the time they're 8, and club level if you've done the above, you can't tell who shelled out £20 a week on private lessons for a 3 year old.

Thanks you all for the advice. I am not going to renew the expensive lessons. I will look into council ones or we will go swimming as a family. I like the idea of swimming lessons for me.

Honestly, get the lessons for yourself! It will give you so much confidence generally and it will be some time for YOU to do something for YOU.

I am a LP, DS is old enough to stay home for short periods, and I now swim 3x a week, sometimes he comes with me, sometimes he doesn't. I could not get out to do anything for myself for years, and it's really tough.

You have a DP who can cover for you and will be happy to do so. You need the headspace only trying to breathe underwater can bring..

Have i inducted you into the cult yet?

350 :-0 my dd3 lesson is 2.50 per class on a drop in basis and people moan that its expensive!
Dd1 did baby swimming, for health reasons dd2 did not. Dd2 started swimming lessons at 5. Both dd1&2 (8 and 7) are fantastic swimmers. Dd2 is only a stage behind dd1. So personally no pre school swimming doesn't give them a head start. I go because its the only day of the week dd3 naps now!

The price differentials on this thread are staggering. Round my way, (affluent area in commuter belt) £10 for a 30 min group lesson with up to ten children is standard.

We did compressed courses - a week of 1 hour per morning for a couple of holidays. This got both children competent in the water, and anything more has been achieved just by having fun in pools etc and on holiday (relatives and now friends have boats/pools so it was always important from very young that they were at least competent). This way I didn't have to spend every tuesday night for An Eternity watching groups of 4 year olds splash around in the local pool, having circled the car park for 20 minutes hunting for the Last Space.