Realised I have spent £720 on swimming lessons and daughter still can't swim.

[sortingmyselfoutslowly]

She is 6, very bright and ahead in all areas at school, good at listening, well coordinated. Can ride a big bike without stabilisers and learn a whole 3 minute dance at street dance class. Aibu to think that after 3 years of 30 min weekly swim lessons she should be able to swim? She is in the 3rd class up in the learner pool. So she has made enough progress to be moved up twice. But I watched her today and her stroke technique is awful and she puts her feet down to breathe. I knew she was progressing slowly but stuck with it because a) she enjoys the classes and has made some good friends b) it's good exercise and c) it fits in well with family life as I can swim in the big pool at the same time as her lesson. This is a big deal as i don't have family close by so time by myself to exercise is precious and I love swimming. Now thinking that I need to move her to another swim school as it's such slow progress. Her little brother is 4 soon and I don't want to pay for 2 sets of lessons. We pay £20 a month and there are 6 in each class. I also had to pay for her badges when she moved up classes and write her certificates myself :/

One of my best friends is a swimming teacher, she says 1-2-1 is the most sucessful, my two youngest learnt in a fraction of the time that the older two did because they had 1-2-1.

For sometjing as simple as swimming can never understand why parents dont teach themselves. My dad ws a very poor swimmer but taught me in a few months and I taught my son in around the same timescale. 3 years is outrageous. Lessons to get badges or compete is fine but for leisure swimming seems to me unnecessary.

That's not great, OP. DD is 7 and has has a year of 30 min council lessons in groups of ten. She's not brilliant at physical stuff but she swam 25 metres in one stroke this week and has 10 metres in the others. They are all recognisable.

New class time, definitely

Look around for other swim schools.

DD started private swimming lessons in June last year, it's a class of maximum 8 to an instructor and can swim 100m now (not full on there are a couple of seconds at each end of the pool as it's circuits in a 25m teaching pool)
Her curriculum ones from school were pretty useless but the instructors had 30 kids with 2 instructors so I didn't expect much.
I would have loved to teach her myself but am NOT water confident at all. Although I have had a crash course at the same school.

I think with what OP has paid she should be seeing some proper results.
Dds lessons work out at £8 per week paid in either half term or termly instalments.

beyond I am a swimming teacher and yes I agree it should be fun but that fun should be encouraging them to get those faces in!

In response to the comment that Baby swim lessons are a waste of time - They're really not. They teach water confidence and life preserving skills in a safe and fun environment. This is quite difficult for a parent to achieve by themselves. And that's why most baby swim teachers take their own babies and toddlers to lessons......

We've spent way more and gone from groups to 2:1 to 1:1 and finally told them to stop this ridiculous 4 strokes bollocks. He doesn't need to know butterfly EVER. Just teach him one frikkin stroke till he can do it, pleeeease!!! Drove me nuts but 8yo finally cracked it. Have taken a year off for younger one and will restart when he's ready to crack it much faster. Yanbu!

Gosh. It feels like there is a lot of pressure on kids these days. Concerns around swimming techniques for a 6 year old? In the eighties I learned to swim at 6 from simply copying my sister as we went family swimming each week. £20 a month is actually quite cheap for most types of classes.

Strongly agree with leaving it until they're about 8. I hauled myself across town for 8.30am swimming lessons on a Saturday morning for about 7 years. The 3-6 years are a waste of time - except for fun.. They're just not coordinated enough. My friend only started her kids on lessons at about 8 and they flew through the grades, and can now swim as well as mine (the same age) in a fraction of the time at a fraction of the cost. They might be exceptional swimmers, but I don't think so.

We've spent a hell of a lot more than that abd my 4 year old can't swim a stroke. Prefers to walk along the bottom of the pool 🙄 He is in the starter class with the 2 and 3 year olds, but he is happy so we will keep plodding along.

We did a bit of paid lessons but ds started swimming properly when we went on holiday and swam with us every day.

I would try about four 1:1 lessons and lots of swimming together, just having fun.

I would suggest watching a few lessons first before making any changes. Firstly, it takes a long time in my experience for them to be able to swim front crawl breathing correctly (took my daughter almost a year before she was doing it properly!). They may be able to swim front crawl but get still put their feet down out of habit. A change of teacher or class to the deeper bit in the pool might work. also, it is vital that you take her swimming out of lessons, you always see better progression in the children who are taken swimming outside of lessons.

How often do you and/or her DF take her swimming? Expecting any child to learn in 30 mins a week is unrealistic.

My daughter could swim almost a width at 2 years old. She started lessons at 3 and regressed slightly because they automatically put arm bands on them for lessons, but she made quick progress and after 2 years of lessons is doing well. My son on the other hand took much longer to learn- he has lessons for 3.5 years, got to the 7th group and decided after a year of doing the same things that he wanted to give up. It was all about perfecting the strokes and he struggled- partly because he's not very coordinated and partly because he didn't really care about the finer details of it all! He can swim a length easily and is safe in the water so I'm happy with that. They both learned in the same place, same lesson scheme, some of the same teachers. I think my daughter must just be a bit of a natural and my sons strengths lie elsewhere. I'm not a great swimmer either!

I agree with 1:1 lessons for a term or so. I taught swimming for 5 years and I found the best progress was 1:1 until they could swim unaided and then groups were great for teaching strokes and refining their technique. I often did 6/8 lessons 1:1 and they significantly improved enough to really benefit from group lessons. I always went in the water with my non swimmers but the teacher training was to teach from the poolside.

For those saying it's a waste of time when they're younger or they're not coordinated enough - that's not true, I've taught many 4 year olds and my own 3 year old can swim
15m unaided.

Good luck!

I know a few people who's kids did not progress with group lessons but at age 6/7 ish invested in intensive swimming course over half term (daily) and by the end of the week made huge progress.

Took my son AGES too. And I was paying an additional £10 every lesson for taxi fares....He kept putting his feet down on the pool bottom because he could!
In the end, I got him four 1 to 1 lessons one half term. He swam across pool in the first lesson because there was no other choice. Sorted!
He's been quite slow progressing up the ASA levels compared to other children - sometimes a year on each level- but we've stuck with it because he enjoys it and it's good exercise. Now on Bronze level aged 10.
(Also, make sure they have goggles. Make a big difference if they don't like water splashing in their face.)

I learnt to swim riding waves at the seaside. Totally self taught.

Our house is 50ft away from the sea so it was vital for ours to learn to swim when we moved here. After 18 months my 11yo can swim like a fish, 7yo can do a length, but 4yo still pisses about in the Pool. DH has just paid for 1:1's for him as feels he should be able to swim by now. He is 4, and a comedian.

I agree with the recommendations of 1:1 and also family swims.

PS I was actually a competitive swimmer myself but didn't really get going with proper strokes until I was about 9. I was quite frightened of the water but just didn't have the strength necessary to work on technique until that age.
Do other 6 year olds have good technique? In my experience, that's quite rare.

Yanbu. I have had a similar experience. My son was 6 in June and had private lessons winter & spring term and made no progress. These are in addition to the weekly school lessons!

Previously he did swimming lesssons during reception but we stopped them towards the end of the year when my other child fell ill.

Plus my husband takes him every other week, minimum. I figure some children learn differently and need more attention! And encouragement. Plus my son just doesn't really care. He will happily be bottom of the class and not bothered. Other children you see, desperately need to be the best at everything and so press on much more.

Sounds like groups lessons don't suit your child and are a very poor return on your investment. Monthly private lessons and swimming casually inbetween may be better.

What does your daughter think of her progress?

Can you do a summer crash course? Swimming lessons everyday for a week might be enough to push her progress on to the next level.

That's really poor. My DDs started swimming at about the same age as yours and by age 6 could swim 300 metres, dive, pick up a brick 6 feet down and had solid breaststroke, backstroke and freestyle. They could also tread water, somersault, hand stand and swim distances under water. And I spent a lot less than you. Groups were small (maximum of 8), teachers would get in the water to demo but generally be on the side, but they would explain and demo, patiently and repeatedly, how to develop stroke, breathing and all the essentials. I think you have been getting poor value for money.

Sorry to clarify- I don't expect hrs technique to be perfect but just good enough to be able to breathe sideways after 3 strokes or whatever do she toes nylon have to put her feet down to breathe.
Yes of course I would still watch her in the pool when she can swim confidently, I just mean not having to hold her in the deep bits or bemail in with her all the time.