To cancel 3 year olds swimming lessons?

[Swimmingisexpensive]

They are very expensive and I’m not sure he’s learning to swim any time soon. However, I’ve seen children really struggle to get back into it.

We only get to go swimming as a family once every few months so without weekly lessons he won’t get in the pool much.

When my 2-year-old DD started acting up, the swim teacher did a dive with her and afterwards she became more engaged again. She just needed the shock to the system that swimming is fine and can be exciting. I put it down to the previous teacher being useless after the first teacher was great which led to a plateau and eventual apathy towards swimming. Very glad to be with this teacher now.

Perhaps you could see if your teacher will do a dive or is it too much for yours?

I'm having the same debate too. My Dc (3) concentrate and do what they're asked in the lesson but don't particularly enjoy it and haven't really improved in the last 6 months.

I’ve just winced and paid again.

The teacher is lovely but I think one of the issues is we have to go at the weekend and so it’s busy. We used to do Friday morning lessons which was better. Still not sure how much progress he’s making.

I was once told by a swim instructor that lessons before 5 years old are a waste of time. Take them yourself and let them play and associate the pool with fun, then start lessons when they are 5 or 6.

It doesn't seem to be a popular decision, but if you are a confident enough swimmer you can teach your own children to swim. I did. It was much cheaper to pay for a pool membership than swimming lessons. My kids are 11 & 13 now, but both could swim from around 5 years old.

I kept DD’s going because I knew that if I didn’t, she’d never go regularly. There are lots of swim classes around where we are and it’s worth shopping around and asking locally for recommendations. She is a fish and spends more time under the water than above it these days but has a natural aptitude for it. (Loves a normal pool where I have to spend ages throwing dive sticks for her.) Older DD was harder although she picked it up very quickly at 6 but I regretted stopping - I was full time at that point and there wasn’t a suitable class for her after baby swimming so we were very keen to keep DD2 going. She was never as confident in the water as DD2 and swimming here thankfully in the council pool is a cheap activity.

Most children cant learn to actually swim before they are at least 4/5. They dont have the muscle co-ordination before that. Lessons are mostly for water confidence.

Honestly, I would just go for fun rather than paying loads of money and start again at school age.

Sounds similar to ours. £15 a lesson but in a small group of 5

I don't think it's worth spending money on lessons for kids under 4 or so till they can learn to obey commends

I never did lesson with baby blondes

It's more to allow them to enjoy water and not feel fear

Once at school I feel they are better at learning /using skills and after an intensive course of every day for a week my 5yr was swimming

We now do weekly lessons

This. As I said above dd5 learnt to swim in a week of 5 lessons of 30mins in a group of 5

It was almost like 121 the amount of attention she had from teacher

Sounds about right

My daughter didn't have lessons before 5 as although I had with her older brother, she wasn't paying attention and really didn't seem like she was able to concentrate or get anything out of them. She certainly wasn't able to swim in any recognisable stroke! We did go to the pool as a family a lot to get the water confidence though and she was fine jumping in / putting her face in the water etc. She started lessons after Covid aged 7 and got through to Stage 7 by age 9. She then went into the local swim club and is now training 13h per week as part of their performance squad.

I wouldn't waste the money tbh, but I would try to go to the pool as a family for 'fun' if you can more often than every few months, and then start up with the lessons when they are 5/6 and are physically able to progress much quicker.

Took my daughter ages to learn to swim. She was maybe about 9 when she got it. I kept trying with her. I always loved swimming and it was sad to see her just not being into it despite all the regular and gentle efforts we made to get her there.
She still doesn't really like it (16)and I wish it wasn't so.

I can't swim and am terrified of the water. Can't even get my face wet in the shower!

I took DC1 to swimming lessons as soon as they'd had their injections. Did the same with DC2. I stopped when it was obvious they could swim and by the time they went to school and had lessons there, they were like fish!

It didn't take long for either to get the hang of it. If your DC is water confident and can swim, then leave the classes and do fun family swims instead as and when (although I didn't do this because I was a single parent and don't do water!).

Adult DC1 has tried to teach me to swim. Still can't do it!

Wait until 5 plus

Where I am the swimming lessons are about half the cost of 1 adult and 1 child going swimming.

@Swimmingisexpensive I'd wait a year or two for formal lessons. If you start lessons at 3, he'll learn to swim properly around 5 or 6. If you start lessons around 4/5, he'll learn to swim properly around 5 or 6

I think three is a bit too young. Mine started at around age four and both are now excellent swimmers. We took them regularly to the pool before that, though. We had council lessons. They’re £22 a month where we are - London.

This is not true, both of my children were confident, independent swimmers by age 5. They could paddle around and get themselves safely out of the water if they needed to, they could also float and wait for help. Essential life saving skill.

Anything after 5 was more about technique, strokes, diving etc, but the actual basic learning how to swim was done as preschoolers.

He’s only 3yrs old so I wouldn’t bother unless he’s really enjoying it.

I wasted years paying for club group swimming lessons locally and DS wasn’t improving. School lessons were beyond awful and knocked any progress back, I think. He had several different teachers during that time too.

Finally, paid for 6 x 1:1 swimming lessons with a professional instructor who mainly teaches adults (recommended by a friend) when he was 11yrs old and he was swimming really well within 3 lessons in a small hotel swimming pool. Honestly, I was shocked at how quickly he improved with her teaching.

A couple of months later we were visiting family in London and he had a swim in the 50M Olympic swimming pool with a couple of cousins and loved it.

Edited to add, DS has dyspraxia so learning to ride a bike etc. has taken him much longer to learn than the average child.

3 is very young for swimming lessons imo. I'd just concentrate on general physical abilities (coordination and fitness) for a while i.e. take them to the park and encourage them to climb the frames and run around etc. And try again in a year or twos time.

My kids swimming instructor said that kids make far more progress in the half term every day lessons rather than the once a week ones. So maybe do that instead ?

I can't believe how cheap some of these council swimming lessons are.
At our council pool it's £42 a month and you can have up to twelve in the class!
I'd wait until your child is 5 OP.

That's what I did with my dd5

Intensive is the way to go

£60 p/m is a lot

I pay just shy of £80 p/m for x3 DC.

I'd maybe give it a break - even for a few months?

Where are you?

I am in central London and it's just under £27 a month for Council run lessons, max 10 pupils but none of my kids are in groups of this many.

Rebook at age 4-5.

It's an essential life skill but give it a break if not working.