One-to-one or group swimming lessons for a 4yo?

[MrsJohnDeere]

I would like 4yo ds1 to learn to swim sometime soon (I didn't until older and have never liked swimming).

The local pools are massively oversubscribed for swimming lessons (local baby boom) and have closed their waiting lists for a year. I assume there'll still be a long wait once he actually made it onto the list next year too.
However there is only an 8 week wait for individual lessons, although these are obviously more expensive.

Does anyone with more experience of these things know which actually works best for learning to swim. I'm guessing that he might learn faster in a one-to-one class, but it would be less fun?

Don't know about a 4 y/o but I found group lessons a complete waste of time for dd (probably 6 when she started?). In half an hour they spend probably half the time hanging around waiting for the other children to swim across/follow instructions etc. We gave up after a term & just went to the pool ourselves once a week - dd got more swimming time, plus time to play in the water.
I'd go for the 1 to 1 myself - I've heard really good things about them, & I suspect that the overall cost will be less as your child will actually learn to swim much quicker. Though you'd probably need to take them to the pool regularly to keep up their skills I guess - but then that could be the 'fun time' especially if you go with friends.

1:1 definitely at that age, agree with takver, the group lessons have at least 8 in them and half the time you can't hear the instructor and by the time they have got everyone to pay attention you have missed at least 5 minutes. With 7-8 goes across the pool, there isn't a lot of time left in a 30 minute lesson. 1:1 is expensive but you learn in half the time

One to one is better and backed up with fun sessions too. You don't want learning to be a chore.

We wasted lots of money on 1-1 sessions with our ds1 as he refused to put his face in the water, so never really made any progress and stopped enjoying the lessons because of the endless focus on him achieving this one important stage. The group sessions at least applied a bit of peer pressure, as he could see other children his age doing it and eventually did it himself. Since then he has absolutely loved swimming and swimming lessons. If your child is happy to get his face in the water already, though, then individual swimming lessons should result in swifter progress (provided he actually wants to learn to swim!). My ds1 loves his group lessons, though and would rather learn in this slightly less pressured environment, albeit that I am going to try a few private lessons again this summer, when the group lessons aren't going on, to see if we can help him learn how to breathe and swim, rather than swim until he asphyxiates!

Children better co-ordinated and less bothered by the water going on their faces than my ds can probably learn to swim pretty well just by going swimming for fun with their parents, but it certainly doesn't work that way for all children. You need to find the format that works for your child and his personality - some children don't like the pressure of individual swimming lessons, others thrive on it.

I think that's really true. It was a complete waste of time sending dd to group lessons as (a) she is quite shortsighted - so with a teacher on the edge of the pool she could never follow what was going on or see the demonstrations, (b) she isn't great at concentrating & paying attention, especially when she doesn't have her glasses on.

I'm also much more inclined than the teacher to tell her that if she doesn't pay attention and try her best we will get out of the pool & not come next week .

Something else that made a huge difference to dd was getting good goggles. She now has prescription ones of the same make, but even just the regular ones helped her immensely, as she hates getting water in her eyes. We got these having seen them on other children at the pool & they are great as they're very easy for her to put on & adjust, & don't fill with water.

Oh yes, definitely agree about getting goggles.

i've got the adult version of those goggles which enables me to swim with my eyes open with my contac lenses in. They do not let ANY water in, they are amazing.

I had the opposite problem with swimming lessons with my younger son. He had no fear of the water and spent virtually the whole lesson with his head under water and never heard any instructions. One to one was the answer where the instructor also got in the water to make sure his body was in the right postion and scooped him up when he went under.

They're fantastic, aren't they. The only thing is, having got the adult ones for me, I now want prescription ones like dd's so I can see, too . . .

are prescription goggles expensive?

my dd learnt at a private pool with a private teracher - she did 4 on one ratio. my dd2 had been leanring for a year in a group of 6 chidlren and getting no where at all - it was a complete waste of 35 quid each term.

whereas the private teacher gto her swimming and taught her the four basic strokes and now dd2 swims with a local club and is a good swimmer - to the point I would love to be able ot swim as she does

iwoudl go for one to one myself if I was in your position

I didn't think they were that bad eatyourveg. DD has these ones which were £35 but the same site has quite a few cheaper ones. A lot less than they used to be, I think (remember asking quite a long while ago & being quoted something like £70!)

Group lessons, the good - DD actually made amazing progress during a week's summer swim school last year, even though it was only half an hour a day. But the bad - we've now pulled her out of weekly group lessons because she wasn't enjoying them and couldn't hear what the teacher was saying. Plus DH was pretty pissed off that she spent a whole lesson ALWAYS being the last one to be called out from the side to swim her width, with the teacher starting the next activity before she'd made it across.

We've gone back to family swimming now, for fun and to keep her hand in, and she's doing a different week-long course the week after next. I'd like her to do 1-1 at some point, to get her strokes right (I've never managed this myself).

Group has worked well for my 4 yr old. BUT its a small group, 4 x 4 yrs olds of similar ability, often only 2 or 3 turn up.
If I'd wanted him to do late afternoon or saturday group lessons it would have been bigger groups and a waiting list, but as we could do mid morning mid week its been fine.

As a compromise, do you know another family with a 4 yr old to share a private lesson with?

group has worked well for ds now 5.10. He started at 4.7 in 'baby' pool and was ready to move to shallow end of main pool by nov altho wouldn't so went in jan this year. In april did his 10m and now swims in the deep end of main pool. They have max 10m per session and children swim 3 at a time next to each other. They only wait for 15 secs at most for everyone to do lentgh and then teacher explains next things and they go again. He is getting on (very) well I think as he's the youngest in his class by at least a year.

To me this shows that children learn to swim at there own rate regardless of group size and lesson quality would also count towards how they progress.

Thank you all. Much food for thought.

Great idea about sharing the lesson with another 4yo. I shall ask around at school.

I think I will go for private lessons in one form or another. Bit concerned about the 'head in water' thing though, as ds hates getting his hair wet!

I'd recomend looking for a local private swimming group lessons.

Ds had lessons for a while at the local sports cantre, and as others said large groups and spent most of lesson watching other children.

I found an independent swimming school which he has done really well at, they never have more than 8 in a group and all swim together up and down pool so in their half an hour they do loads. HE has really come on since going. The lessons are held in school swimming pools either after school or on weekends depending on your preference

a good wswimming teacher will be able to encourage and help get your ds to put his head in the water and blow bubbles without him reaslising its something he doesn't like

My DD did one week's intensive beginner's swimming at the pool local to my parents' home in Kent last summer ie 5 x 30 minutes in a group of six children. She was 4.9 at the time.

She then did 3 x 30 minutes individual lessons over the course of a week just before her 5th birthday and got her 5m certificate. She had had no additional practice in between the two lots of lessons.

I highly recommend some private lessons to get started. But I think a child also needs the stamina-building 1x or 2x a week swimming throughout the year in a group, once he/she has learnt to swim a length or so.

Ha, ha to ivykaty4's comments. She's clearly never met my ds1. Despite being taken swimming since he was a baby and enjoying being head-above-water, my ds1 would not put his face in the water (except so far as was absolutely necessary to blow a few token bubbles) until he was a month off 6-years old - ie after nearly 2 years' worth of swimming lessons, both private and group, and nearly 6-years of being taken to swimming pools to "swim" for fun. No amount of bubble blowing, playing with watering cans, trying different types of swimming aids etc, made any difference. He would occasionally consent very reluctantly to jumping in the pool holding someone's hand, but would come up from submersion looking most unhappy and point blank continued to refuse to deliberately put his face down in the water while trying to swim. He also had a clever trick with sinkers of hooking them up onto his foot so that he could get them to the surface without putting his face in the water (or would look up at the ceiling while trying to reach down blindly towards them in the hope his arm was long enough to reach), and would refuse to swim under hoops submersed in the water. His terror of having his face in the water meant that he could not learn to float or swim without assistance, because the minute he felt his body sink a tiny bit, he would panic and put his feet down. It was not until he could put his face in the water (ie lost the fear of sinking) that he got the confidence to realise that he could actually propel his body forwards (ie swim) without the assistance of float jackets, shark fins, armbands, swimming floats, woggles or a teacher's or parent's arms, without sinking like a stone. He did not believe us before that point.

Since he has been able to put his face in the water, he spends his whole time face down, hence the urgent need to teach him how to look up and breathe!!!!!

Swimming lessons for us for two years, therefore, were just a means of getting him in the swimming pool regularly, as he was then going at least once a week, or more if we also took him along to swim for fun. It is only now that his swimming lessons are of any particular use in learning to swim - you cannot learn the swimming strokes if your whole concentration during a swimming lesson is on avoiding your face going under. Hence group lessons being a much better idea at this stage of the learning to swim process, because they are a lot cheaper!!!!!

ps he's still in beginner's stage 1 classes...

pps despite his total lack of ability in the swimmning pool, he loves his swimming lessons...

we've always used group lessons for my three, but at a private swimming school, not at the local recreation centre. the lessons are more expensive and are always very busy, but have worked well. for one year dd2 had a 1-1 teacher in the water with her (she has cerebral palsy) and we had to change the pool location (there were a choice of three locations for the lessons) as two of them weren't suitable for different reasons (one was a big pool and very noisy - the acoustics meant she was essentially terrified the whole time as she has some sensory issues) and the other wasn't suitable as her motor control and compromised grip meant the edge of the pool didn't provide a suitable ledge/ rail that she could hold onto.

anyway - group lessons can be fine, you just need to find the right ones. the swim school we used had two instructors in the pool with each group (between 6 and 8 children max). dd1 and ds1 are both better swimmers than dh or i, - dd2 has no fear (totally the opposite) but her cp means she is taking longer than the others to learn, but we expected that tbh.

IME the advantage of group sessions is when other children are putting head in water jumping in etc a nervous child will just do it as theres not the pressure of teacher watching just them.

Agree with mumbar that having other children there helped my ds1. And his lessons do have a couple of helpers in the pool as well as one on the poolside. He gets more than enough practice during the lessons, feels safe and confident with his teacher, and is just a very slow learner - poor motor co-ordination combined with a connective tissue disorder...