4 year old afraid of being out of depth in swimming pool

[AllBuggiedOut]

DS1 is 4 years old, and has just got his 5m swimming badge (very proud ) which they do at the shallow end of the pool where he can touch the bottom. But he's now moved up to a class where they take them out of their depth, and he's terrified and refusing to jump in or swim, despite the teacher being right there with him.

Anybody had experience of similar? He's perfectly capable of swimming but panics out of his depth.

Sounds quite sensible to me He's doing very well to get his 5m at 4, but then, he is only 4 so stepping up to the next class will be a big deal.

I'm not at all surprised!

Sorry, not helpful, but it's a very very natural fear.

take him in on your own, and take him out of his depth next to you, so he can grtab you if he gets scared

Thanks - and I know he's doing really well. I just don't want him to have to go back a class, but nor do I want to take him to one he doesn't enjoy or gets stressed about.

I'm 41 and still hate being out of my depth and jumping in even though I can swim !

Yes, had exactly similar. Took quite a while for DD to get over it but eventually she did.

IMO its better to be a bit this way than the fearless ones who jump in deep water when they cant swim well!

The teacher will probably have come across this many times before. Talk to him/her and see what they advise.

4 is still very little. he's doing great - I'd not make a bit thing about it - you need to be careful not to knock his confidence - he's got plenty of time to go out of his depth.

Teacher said stick with it and maybe a private lesson

He'll get over it eventually. It's totally normal. Ds (6) can swim the length of an olympic pool, but still tells people he doesn't know how to swim in the deep end. And dd who is 4 and can swim the pool the short way across will only jump into the deep end when she's taken up with playing and forgets that it's the deep end.