How can I improve DS's (5.5) swimming (or rather lack of it!)

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DS2 is 5.5 and has been having swimming lessons for about 2 years, but is STILL level two and using floats. He has lots of confidence - not afraid to jump in without float, and go down water slides etc.

But he seems way behind his peer group, and I'm thinking the group lessons are perhaps just not giving him enough practice & 1:1.

Do I have to spend a fortune on private tuition, or would just me taking him 4 or 5 times over half term help at all (i.e. a personal 'mummy crash course' !)

Thing is, I have NO IDEA what sort of thing I should do with him to get him swimming properly??

can he swim at all without float?

Well, how embarrassing is this - I don't really know! I suspect he COULD probably manage a metre or two!

Maybe this is it - we just need to do more swimming with him, rather than relying on lessons, because at the lessons they always have floats or those tube things, so he always goes for one when we go swimming too.

The amount of time they swim in a lesson is minimal.Just take them yourself.I swim loads with my kids.They learnt to swim painlessly by me putting them into a special jacket which has lots of different floats in it. i take them out very gradually over time until they are swimming with none at all.Both swimming well by about 3.

agree just take him swimming..ds is 4.4yrs and had swimming lessons the past year and he seemed to spend half the time waiting while teacher was with other children so have been taking him myself and stopped the lessons. He can swim 25m but will use the float when he is tired etc. You could just try ds across a width where you can stand up. Get his arms going like doggy paddle and kicking his legs and just walk in front of him not too far but not close enough for him to grab you iykwim.

I think that 1:1 swimming actually works out cheaper than a group lesson, especially as there is normally 10 in a class so the pupil will get 3 mins of teachers attention, rather than 30 mins.

Parents very rarely teach their children to swim properly. Carry on with the lessons but take him yourself as well.
The lessons will teach him style and how to breathe etc, but like all other skills , swimming needs practice.
Not sure what you men by still needing floats. Kids in advance classes still use floats

Thanks for the replies. Christy - regarding the floats, I meant that in the lessons they are still using floats ALL THE TIME - so there is no practicing what it feels like without them IYSWIM.

I have seen children of this age go from not wanting to get in the water to being able to swim half a width unaided by the end of the equivalent of 1.5 hours of 1 to 1 tuition.

Book some 1 to 1 lessons one school holiday when he could go every couple of days, and then he can go back to the groups once he is up a stage or two.

Really LM? You see that's what I was wondering - I think he probably IS capable of more, but just never has enough time in the lessons to show it.

Could a private teacher help him move up stages that quickly, and can they award the same swimming badges etc?

Echoing LMs comments. My ds1 was the same - very loathed to learn to swim, though enjoyed being in water. He went on a course in the school holidays which involved a lesson every day for a week. It made a huge difference to him, just when I was despairing.

Take him over half term and see what you can do. Main thing is to encourage a good horizontal body position and a strong kick (from the hips not the knees). I've posted tips before so you could try a search on my username - I'm on hol at the mo so no time to add detailed comments. Also you can get books on teaching swimming - maybe from the library. It's not really rocket science, and in any case you've nothing to lose if it doesn't work. Good luck.

Our school runs extra lessons during half-term and the holidays, as do the local sports centres. I'd enquire as to which teachers do 1 to 1 (or do a yell out here giving your area, and someone will come to your help). This is a really good age to give that bit of a push. Which badges etc are awarded depends on the teacher rather than the nature of the lesson ime, but as I said, he can always go back to groups once he is swimming independently.

I really would get him 1:1 lessons. BTW dd was still doing float work in level 12, whihch iirc is the top level for swimming levels.

Agree with LadyMuck

I really wouldn't do any actual teaching myself unless you know what you are doing. I mean I can swim but I know there is all sorts wrong with my breaststroke kick, my butterfly is terrible, my diving has something horrible wrong with my back yadda yadda

I would do it yourself, you're not wanting him to be an olympic swimmer after all, it doesn't matter if he isn't brilliant at it and there's nothing that can't be ironed out at a later date by a proper swimming club should he want to take up swimming properly. I did swimming lessons when I was young but my mum or dad used to take me quite often and had no qualms in teaching me themselves even though they can't swim brilliantly. I used to swim to county level so they never did me any harm. My dad used to bribe me with ice cream to swim a length etc!

You can take the floats away and use your hand to support his hips and just go along like that, at least it removes the floats and will make him realise he doesn't need them, then you can slowly start taking your hands away for periods of time, just a couple of metres here and there, I don't expect he'll even notice after a while.

My mum not only taught me to dive, but also to do a backwards dive, and I can tell you now, she's NEVER done one of those herself!

I would take him yourself and just mess around. I taught dd to swim without floats by getting her to chase bath ducks around the pool and playing "Finding Nemo". We would act out scenes from the film which involved her swimming. And I got her to dive by pretending to be Augustus Gloop falling in the chocolate river.

We would have at least an hour in the pool and she'd do far more than those in the swimming lessons alongside us.

I've just enrolled her in swimming lessons now (she's 4.5) so she can work on her strokes, and because she won't listen to me. But we will still be going for the mess around sessions.

I've been trying to teach DS myself and got nowhere. He's doing an intensive course this half-term. 3 teachers for 4 children

I think you need to take him yourself as well. Don't put pressure on him to swim when you take him, let him enjoy being in the water. That way he will get confident and do better at the lessons.

We will be sending our two for lessons when they are 3. I used to swim competitively so had lessons and training for years, but I know that they would not take instruction from me like they would take it from a swimming teacher, even though I have all the experience and technique to swim really well myself.

I was told that it would take a lot longer to pass a driving test if you only drive during formal lessons. You need your dad to take you out practising as well.
Same principle as swimming I think.

Mine both started swimming properly when we spend a few days in a hotel with a pool. Daily swimming made the difference! (it also helped that the pool was too deep for dd to stand so she HAD to swim!!) (I knew she could though - before anyone accuses me of trying to drown her!)

Find a lesson scheme where they don't use floats all the time -- I never heard of such a thing, before. How can they learn to go without floats if they don't practise? Floats are ok some of the time for learning technique, but not all the time.
Private lessons were a waste of time for one boy, I know. He just needed time to grow up and get more coordinated.

I think one to one lessons would bring him on a lot faster. You may find that the cost balances out - that you need less time with the one to one system than you have with the group lessons.

It also doesn't sound too good that they always use floats; my ds is the same age as yours and his teacher uses floats for I'd guess about a third of the lesson, the rest of the time he is doing it himself (or being supported by her). I'd say my ds can do about half a width on his own and due to various illnesses he's probably had realistically, about 3 or 4 months of lessons and that's all. Also my ds has co-ordination difficulties and struggles with his motor skills so I think you can see how the one to one lessons have benefitted him.