To feel a bit embarrassed my nearly four year old is in a class with two year olds!

[notaswimmer]

I know I shouldn’t but …

We have been going swimming since ds was a baby. The final class before they are able to swim independently is aged from two to starting school.

DS can’t yet swim independently, not even a little bit. So he’s still in that class - but all the other children are aged two. Now we’ve gone back after summer the difference is quite marked.

its my issue I know

DD was 4 when this happened.
puss me off= piss me off

Swimming is a weird one in that some kids just get it at 3 or 4 and some don't. Not always the particularly sporty ones either. Some kids it simply won't click until they are about 6.

If your child is in lessons and isn't progressing its probably just that there's a physical "click" he just has not had yet. I'd ditch the lessons, it will knock his confidence to be left with toddlers. If you must have him in lessons/aren't willing to just take him swimming yourself, consider moving him to a normal stage 1/2 swim england program with other four year olds .

If you’re embarrassed, don’t be, I’m sure no one else actually cares and it’s about making your child happy and proficient in water.

I never understood group swimming classes. Mine learnt in a small class for a week in the summer when they were eight. By the end of the first day they were swimming...

Not everyone gets things easily. We'd tried for years to teach ours to swim. Don't judge your son by the others in the group.

Your 3 year old child is in a swimming lesson class with 2 year olds because he cant swim independently

what are you going to do about it

My DS started lessons at 4. He just didn't seem to make much progress so eventually I started paying for 1:1 sessions. They made a huge difference and soon he could rejoin the normal classes (graded by rainbow colours so you move from red to orange etc). Ages were all mixed so that wasn't a concern, but just the fact that he wasn't improving.

He does have ASD and ADHD so that may have contributed to the lack of progress - but if you can afford it I really would consider 1:1s. It is a bit pricey but probably less than you will pay in additional classes overall.

But don't stress about it. I'm sure at 4 he isn't fazed about being in a class with toddlers - although he might be when he's older.....

We had exactly the same thing. She hadn’t progressed much in a year and hadn’t learnt to swim independently in the 4years. Cancelled water babies and started swimming lessons and she was swimming after just a couple of lessons. Water babies was lovely until pre-school age. Definitely get swimming lessons where you don’t go in the water and he will be with his own age.

Take him once a week yourself, and give him play lessons. He's only four for goodness sake.

I might start by reading all the OPs posts.

I wouldn't worry, my DD is 11 and just started swimming lessons this year after finding she had started to enjoy the brief school swimming lessons. Her stage 2 class was younger kids, from 4+. I wanted her to progress but she just really enjoyed learning in her own time. She's moved up to stage 3 now, which does include a 17yo in her group. In her case her sensory issues were holding her back as she didn't want to jump in (due to the feeling of the tiles when she landed), and that was the reason they weren't progressing her. I resisted learning to swim, until I taught myself at 25 (again, realising now that sensory issues are my thing, as I don't like water near my head)