Does anyone know what's the earliest a child can properly start swimming?

[Thomcat]

I've been taken DD2 swimming since she was tiny, booked her onto a swimming course called Born to Swim. She's now 2 (in Dec) and I feel we're just going over and over the same things on this course. She's so super confident int he water, happy to go under, happy, in fact estatic to jump in from the side and so on. We don't seem to be moving past this stage. Perhaps there is a very good reason for this which is fine if there is. But I don't want to keep going and wasting my money if at 2 yrs old she can be doing more.

I read somewhere thatthey do not have the physical strength to be able to do it themselves until they are at least 3.

My youngest started at 3 with a company called Swimming Nature. He is now a bit more than 3 and a half and is swimming. They do not start hem until 3 in this company which I think is the youngest I have seen (I mean without parents in the water).

I remember seeing a tribal programn about a tribe who lived on boats. Their toddlers were swimming around happily, it was amazing to watch, and shows there is no physical reason a toddler can't learn to swim.

my dt1 is the same, he is nearly 3 and almost swimming. I think some do jsut take it.

See the other reson I ask is on the pamphlet here it says "Children are physically able to lift their heads in & out of the water to breatheat around the age of 3 yrs old. before then they do not really have the strength, endurance motor skills to master this, so at Born to Swim we enhance their natural ability to hold their breath and incorporate doggy style paddling until theu are able to mater the standard strokes.

Yes see DD2 walked at 8 months too. well she took her first steps at 8 months but was properly off and ruinning at 9 months. Yes very odd sight indeed I agree

I was swimming by 2 but we went everyday to GP's pool/sea, DD is at the same age as yours, she does 'swim', kicks her legs and moves her arms alongside me so I guess now it is just a question of slowly removing the floats that she uses.

See we don't use floats of any sort in these lessons which is cool but it seems to be mainlky about confidence building etc which DD2 has plenty of. maybe I need to find an alternative group and see how she gets on, or how we get on with that?

Thomcat - just posted to say wow, i would have loved to see your DD walking at 9 months - I bet you nearly fell off your chair with shock! My DD is 2.6 and has been swimming (initially at classes, now just with me and DH at local pool) since she was 9 weeks old. She HATES to be held, so we got her a swim vest, so she paddles off on her own in that quite happily, until she gets tired and comes to us for a rest. I was also wondering when it might be worth putting her back in classes to actually learn to swim, so this has been a helpful thread.

dt1 crawls - he def doesn't doggy paddle. He splashes a lot, but he copies me so does a crawl. He tends to swim mostly with his head out of the water, so I don't see why they are saying a child doesn't ahve the strenght. He's been doing it since he is 2.5. He is now nearly three and I'm now teaching him to float on his back, without armbands and reducing the armbands.

i would have thought 4.
they have also got to be able to listen and follow instructions.

I wouldn't waste money on more confidence building classes, personally.

btw, one of the ways I taught him to crawl, is by telling him to run with his arms! He understood that better, and picked it up really quickly.

Definitely don't need confidence classes

My ds2 had been going to Mother & baby lessons, but he felt he was missing out when older 2 had swimming lessons.

He joined the beginners class when he was 2.4, he loves it. He's now 3.3 and about to move up to the next class . He might be the youngest in his group but the teacher says he's one who puts most effort in.

I wouldnt even try to teach a child to swim properly until they were 3.5-4.5

all mine are very water confident and have been from a young age, great, have fun with them in the pool

lessons a waste of money before preschool age IMO and even then it takes a couple of years before doing proper strokes.

I've been taking DS since he was tiny, and to classes from 4 months. He's now nearly 21 months and before xmas I was feeling the same as you. The classes were repetitive and DS was playing up because he was clearly bored. He also had complete confidence in the water. We moved to a new leisure centre (for a different reason). He was still the same and I thought, oh well he just doesn't want to swim we should stop. But the teacher there saw him in his age appropriate lesson and said he's bored, let's move him up to the 2-3 year old's. I was extremely skeptical but now, 5/6 weeks on he's taken off. He doesn't swim unassisted but he watches the bigger kids and desperately tries to copy. He's engaged and improving every week. He can "swim" a width kicking and using his arms whilst supported under his chest by a woggle. He can hold on to the side and keep himself buoyant whilst kicking. I used to think that I wanted DS to learn without aids and the natural way (I too had read about the Amazonian tribe) but the reality is we go swimming once a week not for several hours a day and therefore that natural ability is not tuned to the same degree. We are now very fortunate that we are in a leisure centre class which only has 6 kids so he gets a lot of one on one, and the environment is right for him. I think if I was you I would maybe try a term of conventional lessons alongside your current ones and then you can choose which you think is most appropriate for your daughter. And to be honest at this stage I do think confidence in the water shouldn't be under-rated - having watched many older children struggle to even get comfortable in the water, your daughter's got a real life skill already - a massive step in learning to swim.

i could never understand really young swimming classes, but if you enjoy the social side of it? why not..
i always felt you could be teaching the confidence skills without needing a class !

If you're talking about swimming being when they no longer have armbands or any aids, the advice by my Dad and several friends (all swimming teachers) was also that dd wouldn't do it until she was strong enough to hold herself up.

DD first swam without aids around her 3rd birthday. Prior to that I took her and we just messed around in the water, playing games, chasing bath ducks, etc.

She then learnt to swim around perfectly well, dive in and surface dive - all well and good except there were no recognisable strokes! She is now 4.5 and I have just put her into swimming lessons, as she's so used to messing around with me I can't get her to concentrate on learning proper strokes.

yes agree slarty

go swimming as a family once a week if possible - more fun than a class. I also think baby classes are a complete waste of time and money unless you really have no toher social things to do - I know so many babies who were enjoying it at 12 weeks or something mad and then hated it by 2 - also too many bugs in the water IMO [pursed lips]

dd1 didnt have lessons until she was 4 years old and now at 8 is the best swimmner in her class and has been picked for the local town team (we arent doing it as the commitment is to great but thats another story!) [boast]

At my swimming club we used to get children who joined at, say 11, having just learnt to swim and they went on to be really good competitive swimmers.

Well done to your dd Enid - swimming club was just the best hobby when I was growing up. But I was pretty shocked at the early morning training, just at club level when I looked into it locally for dd.

I agree they don't do anything in the baby classes that you couldn't do by yourself but I found the weekly commitment to a class actually made me bother to go on wet and windy days when otherwise I quite easily could have not gone. Also it was another "thing" to get me out of the house and doing things and meeting people so I do think baby classes serve a purpose, if not teaching them anything you couldn't anyway!

I think most swim clubs only start proper lessons from being 3. Ds was 3 when he started and within 6mths was swimming unaided. He recently stopped lessons as he said he didnt like it any more as they were teaching proper breathing techniques and stroke and he is only 4.4 but was in with 8 and 9 yr olds.

Well I wouldn't have had the confidence to push DD under the water and leave her there without the class and I think it was good for her to watch the older kids (she's always been the youngest in her group). I think things like doing monkey monkey and getting them to hold on and move along the edge of the pool, the whole getting them to put their heads under water and hold her breath have been useful. However I think you've all confirmed to me that we've outgrown these classes now so I won't rebook her once this short course is over.
Think I'll look into more advanced lessons or just try and make sue I take her on my own more often. Booking a course always ensures i take her swimming once a week otherwise other thigns get int he way and we don't go so that's useful in itself really.