7pm Swimming Lessons for a 5 year old

[PeppermintCreams]

I've just put my son on the waiting list for lessons at our local Swimming Club, (after advice from Mumsnet) and he will hopefully start in May when he will have just turned 5. Because they are hiring the pool from the local leisure centre, the class times are 7pm for stage 1, 7.30pm for stage 2. (Stage 3 onwards are on early Sunday evenings)

I asked the coach how the 5 year olds get on with the evening classes, and she said absolutely fine, but I would like some reassurance and tips.

He's normally asleep by 8pm so he shouldn't be too bad. Hopefully we'll get the Thursday class so he can have an early night Friday and catch up with sleep over the weekend. I'm sure the adrenalin and excitement will keep him away.

Maybe get him changed straight in to his pyjamas when he gets out the pool?

Well at least he'll sleep well!
Mine are usually very hungry after swimming, so you might need to have a small snack for him.

My 5 year old goes to bed at 7pm, so it wouldn't work for her. She's also tired after her school day, especially towards the end of the week, doing swimming an hour before usual bedtime would be too much for her on a weekly basis. You know your son best, so if you think he'll be fine and isn't too tired by that time in the evening, go for it. Seems an odd time to offer swimming lessons for small children though.

It's a 30 min class so we'll be home for 8pm.

I've just realised the leisure centre run an under 8's splash session immediate before the club class between 6-7pm so I might start taking him to that and see how he copes.

My DC would have been too tired to do their best at this sort of time.

We did early mornings on Saturdays and then after school on Tuesdays when they progressed a bit.

I'm still being Mum-taxi for DD (14) to evening life-saving!

We have an excellent private swimming school here, and they are only marginally more expensive than the local authority classes. They hire out local school pools on certain days and we have been going since eldest DC was 4. That's 12 years!

My 5 year old DS has a lesson at 5:45 on a weekday and to be honest, we are finding that this is just a little bit too late for him. He tells me he is too tired to go, although he does brilliantly when he is in the pool, but he even fell asleep on the way to his lesson last week (he had a bit of a cold as well though). We have got his name down for a slightly earlier class, which I think would be much better for him. There is no way my DS would be able to go to a lesson at 7pm, he's normally asleep by 7:15/7:30. My DD (7) trains with a swimming club at 6:45 on a Friday. Admittedly, it's a 45 minute class with between 400-500 metres swam during that time, but she struggles to get going at that time of the evening and is a strong swimmer who would live in water if she could!

I think you are gonna find the lesson will be too late. Is there no other option? Does the leisure centre not run lessons?

Dd is in yr2 and we have only just switched to evening classes. They have proper shower cubicles at the pool so she has thorough shower then pyjamas with track suit on top then bed. It's really tough to get her in bed before 9pm, despite her lesson finishing at 8pm.

I find the 5.30pm class dd and ds do is late enough (finishes at 6.10pm). A 7pm start would be far too late. dd and ds are 6 and 9.

ds(9) does a rookie lifeguard course mid week at 6:30pm - 7:15pm which I was worried was too late, he enjoys it and copes with the class but is really tired afterwards so we need to make sure homework is done before we go so its all a bit of a rush (he goes to afterschool too).

He never started swimming lessons until he was 6 and had a class at 5:30pm on a Saturday which was late enough. 7pm class would have been waaay to late for him to cope with at 5yrs as he tended to go into meltdown when tired at that age.

Really depends on your ds.

My 4.9yo DS does his swimming class at 6pm after a long school+afterschool club day and could not be happier. He would probably be happy if I woken him up at midnight if it is for swimming. I give him a snack before or after the lesson and he goes straight to bed after we come home (around 7pm).
In my opinion, if your kid generally enjoys swimming, it will be OK.

I think as a one off it will be ok - unless your child tends to get particularly tired. I'd actually suggest if you have a choice that you go for a class at the beginning of the week -by Thursday he will be tired after a week of school. My (older) DC used to do swimming lessons on a Friday (5pm) and half the time it was noticeable that they were too tired to give it their best. Whilst DD managed Rainbows till 7.30 on a Monday from age 5 with no problems at all.

that time didnt work for us, and dd is in bed at 9!

It wouldn't work for my ds4 who is 5 next month, he is far too tired after school.

But it depends on the child, you can only give it a try and see how it goes.

My DS is 5 and has his lesson at 7pm. It works fine for him as he normally does not go to bed till 8 or 8:30. I do see some children changing into pyjamas after the swim as you suggest. None of them seem to struggle in the class. If yourDS can still get home for his usual bedtime I think it would be fine. On the other hand if he is used to being asleep by 7 pm, it might not work so well!

I am a working mum so for me late evening classes would be ideal. My problem was exactly the opposite: level 1 swimming classes for 5 year olds are on Saturdays 8.30-9 am. I thought that children should sleep longer at weekends. At the end all children liked the early morning sessions and they woke up parents not to miss the lessons. If your child is motivated everything is possible...

My DD is 5 and although she loves swimming lessons she finds them very tiring. There is no way she could cope with this late lesson after school.