Ballet and swimming classes

[mandymoo]

What age can they start?

Most ballet classes start from 3 but a friends dd started at 2. Swimming lesson they do on their own are also 3 I think, but swmming classes where you go with them start from whenever you want to.

Our local dance classes start from around age two and the swimming lessons (informal with parents in the water) start as soon as they've hqad all injections.

Swimming lessons without parents (ie just with the teacher) - it varies from place to place. At our club they start at 3yrs but I know at some others locally it's not till 4 or 5yrs so you'd need to check with wherever you are interested in going.

No idea on dance classes!

My daughter was 2 and a half when she started ballet and tap in quite a formal school but she hated it so we left. she started a month or so later in a really informal dance group that is really about putting on shows and having fun. I thien enrolled her in a more formal school when she was 3 and a half and she now loves it.

She started swimming lessons just after her first birthday in the Local pool but the water was so cold. I also found it qute off putting that the teacher wasn't in the pool with us but barking commands from the side and that there were about a dozen of us having lessons together. So I left those and about six months later she started in a private pool, the water was warmer, the instructor was in the pool with us and there was never more than four children having a lesson at a time.

DD started ballet, tap and moiodern dance at age 2.5yo. She loved it at first. However, after first few lessons the teacher changed and she was really strict and shouted a lot. It really put DD off, so we stopped. We did Gymboree activity classes instead, which she loved.

dd has had swimming lessons since 18 months. Cant wait to start ballet!

Depends where you live. Where I am, they do mother and baby swimming lessons from 4 months. Baby Ballet from 6 and then babies progress on thru. I'm a lazy mum who does none of these. Oops!

For swimming lessons without the parent present, then the child needs to be old enough to follow simple instructions - our club will consider them from aound 2 yeasr though most are 3 years.

The ds's haven't expressed an interest in ballet yet, but our leisure centre does baby gym and toddler gym where parents stay, and mini gym where they don't from 3 onwards.

wow, our swimming pool doesn't offer classes w/out parent present before 5yo. No exceptions.

The local dance class has taken little girls (on their own, w/out mum) from as young as 19m, though.

our leisure centres take children from 4 for swimming lessons (parent is on the poolside btw). That's plenty early enough imho tho I know some places do it earlier.
Ballet - dd started in the summer when she was just 4. Certainly some smaller children in the class tho I doubt if a child much under, say, 3 yo would take instruction very well.
(well, talking about my children there, really lol)

My dd started very basic ballet at 3 and a half, moved on to a more formal ballet school at 5 and has taken one exam a year since then: prep, primary and Grade 1. (Proud mummy moment: dd just got her Grade 1 results on Saturday - she passed with Honours )

As for swimming, we went to mother and baby lessons at 5 months where we held our babies in the water and sang songs (majorly embarrassing until you got used to it). By 2 and a half my dd could swim without armbands so joined proper lessons (normally took children from age 4) and she is now doing swimming training twice a week as a member of local swimming club, entering galas etc.

Cam, how did you get your dd swimming without arm bands so early?

Swimming at my local pool starts age 1 with parent and teacher in the water. then on to Puffins-age3/4 without parents and into the full size pool at 6(mine went up at 5 though)Parents watch from the side.
Their lessons do not use arm bands(neither of my kids have ever need them.

IMO the sooner you start swimming the more confident they are(I am very nervous and wanted them to be better than me!)

Ballet -local schools start age 3exams start at 5.
My youngest has been to tap since she was16 months and danced some go younger but just potter really.
Both parents were in thenext room.

rubles, I believe it was simply because I took dd religiously to swimming lessons every week from 5 months and for sessions with me another couple of times a week in our local health club pool. I always found that she ate and slept well when swimming regularly, it was a big part of her babyhood. I was a competition swimmer when young so I felt very confident in the water with her, I would let go of her (without armbands) a few inches from the side from 18 months onwards, telling her to swim to the side, increasing the distance gradually so by 2.5 she could swim by herself.

no I enjoyed it