Swimming lessons - timescale

[Elvisinthechipshop]

My DD (age 4) has just started weekly swimming lessons. Having not taken her swimming much at all before this summer, I took her swimming with me a few times in July and August and have been taking her for an hour every week. She seems keen and can now kick her way across the pool (10m) with a pool noodle under her armpits. What's a realistic timescale to get to the point of swimming without a noodle or float? I'd say she is pretty average in terms of physical abilities: she can ride a bike without stabilizers, climb trees very niftily and is generally active, but nothing outside the norm. She's 5 next May - is that a reasonable timescale to aim for?

(To be clear, the hour with me is on top of the weekly swimming lesson.)

I don’t think you can put a goal on it really. We’re a year ahead of you. I’ve not found linear progress with my 5yo. She could do quite a lot unaided at 3 but then lockdown stopped her progressing and she lost some confidence. It feels like she makes no progress then suddenly jumps forward. She can probably do 10m on her back quite easily now but struggles with having enough strength and coordination to match it on her front with arms and breathing. She’s the youngest in her stage 2 class and has nearly completed it but I think they’ll keep her in there as long as they can because the step up to stage 3 in our pool seems quite big and the kids are either doing lengths of the teaching pool or widths of the normal pool consistently.

It varies massively by child and what type of lessons they have.

A colleague said they had had success leaving starting lessons until their dc was slightly older and then blasted them instead of having slower progress over many years where they (and you!) lose motivation. I like the idea of that so, I never enrolled ds in swimming lessons until he was 8 years old. He had one 1-1 lesson for 9 months and one group lesson a week and within a year he was swimming 10 lengths of a 25m pool in his PJs and got his bronze rookie lifeguard badge. He was highly motived because he would always go up badges at the end of every 8 week set of lessons.

After meeting some parents poolside with dc of the same age and 3 or 4 years into the drudgery of swimming lessons I would highly recommend it. It is more expensive for 1-1 lessons, but probably cheaper in the long.

In a similar situation to you op, ds started swimming independently within a few months (we are a few months ahead of you, as were spending time in the pool al summer), older dd the same. Honestly time with me in the pool made all the difference, so do stick with that. They learned very little in the lessons in the early days other than listening to the teacher and being used to being with someone else in the pool. Just gently encourage her to do things without the noodle.

@BFrazzled that's helpful, thank you.

My sister took swimming classes in her youth. It really does vary from child to child however. For some kids, merely being in the water makes all the difference, others need more help* (encouragement really) to swim. Just support her to do it. That is all that you can do really at this point. Praying and wine helps too.

Swimming is a funny one! Some kids are just fish. My son started lessons at around 18 months old and was swimming without an aid by the time before he turned 3. However we are still trudging through lessons now he’s 8 (although he’s almost “club ready” now)