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Original poster

To ask at which age you told your children how to swim?

113 replies

Flyingfish2019 · 19/02/2019 19:33

?

OP posts:
Newadventure · 19/02/2019 20:28

I've been taking dd swimming every week since she was about 2.. She's now 4. She still can't swim properly but I haven't exactly been trying to teach her. We just go for the fun of it. She's very comfortable in the water. I plan on getting her proper swimming lessons soon and expect her to take to it very quickly.

headinhands · 19/02/2019 20:32

Lessons have always been a waste of time. My dc learnt to swim just playing. They had lessons but was also taking them swimming myself.

Newadventure · 19/02/2019 20:34

Urgh.. just to clarify.. i expect that she will take to it very quickly

In the sense that she is so comfortable being in the water and actually enjoys it.. She just needs to be taught the technique as I really don't know what I'm doing and shes too busy having fun to give a flying monkey what I'm talking about if I ever attempt it Grin)

Pascha · 19/02/2019 20:38

They've been at mother toddler classes since babyhood. Neither one has taken to swimming very fast though.

Ds1(8) is in stage 5 having moved up in September. I anticipate at least another six months before he's good enough to go up.

DS2(6) has been in stage 2 for 17 months and is still not confident enough to move to stage 3.

Don't assume all children take to it like ducks to water because it doesn't always click.

happyasasandboy · 19/02/2019 20:47

We went on holiday for two weeks when DD was just 7 and she learned over the holiday. We did lots of holding her up by the hips while she "swam" across the shallow end and eventually we didn't have to hold her.

Her twin brother still can't swim. He wants to learn to swim by being told what to do while he's on dry land and then just magically be able to do it. Once in the pool he doesn't want any help or instruction at all so he "swims" under water (aka sinks) until he runs out of breath and then stands up!

Different kids; different skills. I should think we saved enough money by not doing swimming lessons to cover the cost of the holiday though Grin

ReaganSomerset · 19/02/2019 20:49

You should get offered swimming lessons in KS2, isn’t it part of the curriculum?

Most do do it, but not well. If they're at the pool for an hour, in that time thirty children have to get undressed, showered, dried and redressed. Often it's half an hour in the pool, one teacher to thirty kids, plus supervisory adults, and the school might only do it for a term- it's not enough to make a confident swimmer.

PhilomenaButterfly · 19/02/2019 20:56

Mingle DD's only just having them in yr6, she's on her 2nd term of them. She was a confident swimmer 2 years ago.

KittyVonCatsworth · 19/02/2019 21:04

She was in the water from about 6 weeks old every weekend as I'm a swimmer and wanted her to be too. Formal lessons started from about 5 I think. She could already swim without aids but little technique by then. She had lessons up until she was 14 with school but nothing afterwards.

She's 23 now and training for her first triathlon where swimming, oddly enough, is her weakness! She's a good swimmer but still lacks technique and stamina but I have no doubt the she's a strong swimmer...she's coming down this weekend and we're going swimming so I'll know and critique 😂 get them in the water as early as possible, get them comfortable, get them strong in water. It's a life skill

elQuintoConyo · 19/02/2019 21:05

DS screamed like fuck in water when he was young and there was no way I was going to bother my arse taking a baby swimming for 30 minutes, enormous faff.

He started lessons at 5, he is now 7 and loves the water. Not that strong a swimmer but has great stamina and can jump in. He tries diving after seeing the Brat one from Minions (the 80s child star, 'i've been a bad boy!'. He'll hum thriller, do a little dance and bellyflop in Grin).

He has the winter off, but we'll start lessons again after Easter until the end of term. Then it's various pools and the sea until October!

I couldn't swim a width until I was 10, by 12yo I was on the school team specialising in backstroke. My dad has been a lifeguard, my mum can't swim, my sister isn't a very strong swimmer despite having a pool.

Notso · 19/02/2019 21:13

DD had lessons from being a baby until she was about 7 then just went once a week with me or gp's plus the school lessons (8 weeks a year) in juniors. She competed for school in secondary.
DS1 had the baby sessions then just went once a week plus school swimming. He is a decent swimmer now.

DS2 and 3 aged 8 and 6 have been having lessons for 3 months. They've not been swimming nearly as often as the older two due to ratios at the local pools, 1:1 under 5. Both coming along really well, DS2 in level 4, DS3 in level 2.

GallicosCats · 19/02/2019 21:14

We tried to teach our two and gave up doing it ourselves because (a) they were clearly not natural swimmers and (b) neither DH nor I swim particularly well - I'm better than he is in the sense that I can at least do consistent (slow) lengths and approximate proper strokes (though there's all sorts wrong with my technique). So we invested in decent lessons for both of them and they are competent swimmers now.

Couple of things we learned: never be afraid to question the teaching - a good swim school should be quite happy to switch instructors/levels as necessary; also any teacher/pupil ratio higher than about 1:4 is a total waste of time. We wasted money on so-called 'intensive' group lessons where DD received about five minutes actual teaching.

Seniorcitizen1 · 19/02/2019 21:16

Took my son to baths when he was about 6 months - he loved it. He became a very strong swimmer by time he was 5 or 6 - self taught all four olympic swimming disciplines by aged 10 and never had a lesson

borntobequiet · 19/02/2019 21:24

My children learned to swim by going swimming with me in the pool and in the sea (1980s). I can’t actually remember “teaching” them. DD could swim happily under water from a very early age in the pool, just coming up for air. From about 7 they joined a swimming club and swam competitively for a few years, then found other sports.

SpotlessMind · 19/02/2019 21:25

Mine went to water babies til he was about 2 so could jump in and swim some distance under water independently. He’s always been very happy and comfortable in the water but I just couldn’t work out how to teach him to swim on top of the water and without putting his feet down every time he needed to take a breath.

So I put him into lessons age 7 and he very quickly ‘got it’ thanks to the discipline and skill of the teacher. He did around a year of lessons and got to level 6 which was enough for us, he’s now a decent swimmer.

Fiveredbricks · 19/02/2019 21:27

Swimming 'lessons' (off me) from a few months old. He's 20m old now and confidently splashing about like a drowning dog. It'll stay at this level for the next year or so before he can grasp any thought about play arm strokes or kicking.

I taught my husband in a day when he was 25 and he'd only ever been to a swimming pool about four times in his life before then.

The trick to swimming is teach them to float and feel safe floating then introduce limb movement.

SmarmyMrMime · 19/02/2019 21:46

We started the baby lessons at 6m which became more structured at 4 into proper swimming lessons. DS1 (8) is still working on swimming 10m competently. It looks highly likely that he is dyslexic (still working on writing his name accurately...) and he may well be dyspraxic too. DS2 is progressing quicker, but it's still quite tedious. I was 16 when I learned after totally failing to learn in 4 years of school lessons. I needed a 1:1 in the pool to teach me the stroke and to slow down.

No way was I going to attempt to teach them myself. If we casually go swimming, they just want to splash and play, not practise strokes.

Tunnocks34 · 19/02/2019 21:48

Started swimming lessons at 3, he’s 5 now and I very confident swimmer, for a 5 year old.

He’s not great at sports and physical activity and he probably was slower at learning to swim than most children, took him 18 months to ditch the armbands and that was with one swimming lesson a week and swimming with us once a week.

MadameJosephine · 19/02/2019 21:53

I took both of them from being babies, they could swim competently by the age of 5-6ish. I taught DS myself because he hated lessons, DD loves lessons and is a much better swimmer in terms of proper stroke technique

RockyFlintstone · 19/02/2019 21:54

I love these 'competitive swimming' threads.

I took mine from 2 days old, and they were swimming length by 6 months.

Not really. I put DD in for lessons at age 4 because I wanted her to learn and she is nearly 7 now and still can't frigging swim! She has no confidence in the water, is quite stubborn and just doesn't really like doing it. DS is nearly 5 and looks like he will be the same.

I didn't bother with baby lessons because they were so expensive and they just didn't like the water - sometimes I wonder if it would have made a difference, other times I think I probably would have just wasted even more money!

I see these babies doing that thing where the parents chuck them in and they flip over onto their backs, but I just don't think mine would have gone in for it!

Wufflepig · 19/02/2019 21:55

Took mine to baby swim from 6 weeks old and then booked them lessons from 3 years old

C0untDucku1a · 19/02/2019 21:58

Both mine started at 16 weeks old. They got their 50m badges at 5.

Dh was a competitive swimmer in his youth and said he would take them and teach the because he is tight but he never did. Whenever he takes them swimming it is all fun. No teaching involved at all. My dd tried out for club swimming aged 8 but then changed her mind. Thankfully. Ive naturally curly hair and sat in humid pools for hours would not be a good look for me.

IAmWonderWoman · 19/02/2019 22:01

They started lessons aged 3, they go every weekend. We took them swimming before that, for fun and getting them used to the water.

I only ever had lessons at school and although I can swim I’m not a great swimmer. I always wanted the DC to have lessons as it’s so important they can swim safely and confidently.

Ithinkmycatisevil · 19/02/2019 22:02

I taught both my dds. They've never had a lesson and are both good swimmers. They let really is just to go lots. There was an open air pool in the village where we used to live and when the kids were small we used to go around 3 times a week in summer. They could both swim lengths by the time they started school.

Tunnocks34 · 19/02/2019 22:06

I say very competent, reading through actually he’s probably just fairly confident. He can swim a width max.

Taken him two years to get to that point!

squeekums · 19/02/2019 22:16

Never did lessons here with dd8.
Just the ones all schools offer here from 5yo. Current school has its own pool, last one the bused them to a swimming center daily for a week or so. Also swimming in her uncles pool from 3 or 4ish

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