To think DS5 should be closer to swimming by now?

[greaj]

DS turned 5 in October.

He's been attending weekly, 30 min swimming lessons since April 2023.

I feel he has made barely any progress, he is miles and miles off being able to swim without a float.

The instructors just pull the kids from one side of the pool to the other and give minimal tips or direction.

I have looked at taking him elsewhere, but they are so full that even the waiting list is closed.

Am I expecting too much? What age could your kids swim independently?

Mine took years, both of them. It was the bane of my life taking them. Non swim now but I wanted them to know how incase of emergencies

Yes in the end a school mum and I shared the cost of a private lesson, then she didn’t want to continue we did another block just my daughter and I wish I’d gone with that from the start

I second this! We're moving DS5 because of how useless the lessons have been.

My 6yr old (just turned 6 a couple of weeks ago) has been having lessons since December 2022 and in a year has gone to Stage 3 which I think is pretty average.

Depends on the child. Dd started swimming properly around 6 having had lessons from 5. Seems very common for children to get swimming around 5-7. It's no race, just water confidence.

Most children just "get it" at around seven.

I don’t know if we’re unlucky as apparently Mnetters live in places where lovely warm council pools are freely available. We don’t. Our leisure centre is a water park with slides and a wave pool and toys. Good luck getting DS(3) to practice swimming there! As it is he goes to weekly lessons for £60 a month 😭

Honestly he probably gets about ten minutes of swimming in each lesson if it's anything like our classes weee with lots of waiting around, queuing for their turn etc. mine could already doggy paddle independently at that age but the lessons and moving through the stages was painful.

We swam with them every week after their lesson to practice. I kept them in until stage 7, then covid hit and they didn't want to go back.

A friend got her kid swimming properly in a week when we went on holiday together on an intensive course. Might be worth considering a private crash course, I know our local pool does them in the holidays.

Ds practically defied the laws of physics in how naturally unbuoyant he was and we lived in a hot country where inability to swim is a huge social handicap. Finally got him swimming by about age 6 assisted by peer pressure and an amazing swim teacher who used the float on back method. It was also ridiculous that for about a year he could swim if wearing a snorkel mask but not without. 🤣🤣

But I do wonder if we overthink it now. My parents taught me in the sea. I just did doggy paddle for increasingly long distances, putting my feet down as needed, and then I could swim. learned the strokes after that.

Can't you teach him? or his dad? or another relative?
Swimming doesn't require a 'class' or course

We paid about £17 or £18 for group lessons. There was multiple lessons going on in the same pool - very noisy and chaotic. They would focus on each child for a few minutes but it meant that most of the kids were standing around doing nothing. My 5 yo would start to mess around because she was bored and the instructor would complain to us that she was misbehaving. We really hated going and it was a complete waste of money.
We pay £25 for private lessons now. The instructor is wonderful, she learns so much and we don't get told off every week!

@greaj what a shame! I've always liked S4 and they've been good for my children but I imagine it's very teacher dependent.

Maybe have a word with the swimming coordinator and explain your concerns?

I do rate their intensive courses. Much smaller groups and swimming every day seems to really help. DS practically had 1-1 one half term.

DC has taken from Reception until well into Y2 before they’ve finally learnt to swim. It’s been painful 😂 And they are so far behind their peers. But, a while back it finally all clicked into place and now they are doing it.

Some kids just don’t take quickly to swimming. Get in the pool with them as much as you can and encourage confidence but they will get it eventually.

It doesn't sound that long to me. My DS (7) has been in swimming classes for just under 2 years and he's nowhere near getting his diploma. The water is too cold (he's a skinny little thing and he stands there shivering on the side and has come out pretty blue in the past and he's not the only one), he hates water and diving down to swim through an underwater hole is his idea of torture. He's in a group of 10 with one instructor.
He'll get there in the end but it's frustrating as his twin sister has finished all her swimming diplomas.

This sounds like a lot of lessons to be getting nowhere.

I was Halliwick trained a million years ago, and that method doesn't use flotation aids, so my son learned to float on his back and have control of lying back and coming upright within his first 'lesson' with me. Within a few sessions he could rotate in water in all directions, control his breath, and glide from a wall push off on his front or back. Then his dad taught him the proper strokes, and it was easy as the 'groundwork' of water confidence and body control was all done. He must have been 4, cos it was before he started school.

Halliwick is often used with people with disabilities, but from this thread, it sounds like it would really benefit the general public if it was more widely available.

Both my sons started lessons at 1, half hour once a week. Both could swim Independently by 2.5/3. 6 year old son can now swim laps of freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and working on butterfly.

neither ever used any sort of flotation device or were dragged about the pool by teachers.

Mine took awhile. Take DV on holiday with a pool. In a week they will be swimming.
Every day for a week is fine.

Once mine were happy doodling around the pool with a 'float coat', I started taking the floats out one at a time. Then when we had daily access to a pool, I went cold turkey for a bit each day and encouraged them to swim in the same way I encouraged them to walk: dh and I stood a couple of feet apart, and dc launched themselves from one to the other of us. Initially, they were just whooshing the gap. Then we sidled a bit further apart so that dc had to 'swim' a tiny bit to reach the other parent, and just kept getting a bit further apart. DC picked it up very quickly, and became confident in the water. Style came with school swimming lessons a couple of years later.

Worked for 2 dc, several years apart.