What swimming level is your 5 year old at?

[user1471523870]

Just curious to kind of benchmark what's the norm! My son turned 5 recently and can basically float and kick on his back, put his face in the water/blow bubbles and he's now starting to make attempts at moving forward kicking legs/moving arms.
He's having 1-2-1 lessons and seems pretty confident in the pool.

How long should I expect him to properly swim (not meaning perfect strokes, rather not sinking if unaided!)?

[CoodleMoodle]

DS is 5.5 and started lessons just after turning 4. He LOVES swimming! He can confidently get in and out (loves jumping in, no fear whatsoever), has no problem putting his face in, etc. In fact we have to remind him to breathe occasionally...

He can move forwards on his front and back using his legs, usually with a float but he can do it without as well. He can't seem to get the hang of using his arms, however, which he's working on in his lessons. He also hasn't quite mastered turning his head to breathe but he's getting there. What he lacks in skill he makes up for in enthusiasm!

DD started lessons at 6 and took awhile to get her confidence, but she's now 9 and swims like a fish. So I'm sure DS will get there, as will yours!

[Muthaofcats]

Has been doing swimming lessons for nearly 2 years and made minimal progress 😂 others his age are able to swim unaided but he’s still very nervous so only just happy putting head in etc

[PracticalPatricia]

DS is 5 but will be 6 soon. He moved on to stage 2 pretty quickly after starting swim lessons - or actually he had a rocky start but then found a different group and he progressed quickly from there to stage 2. He's still in stage 2 now though and it's been a while.

I think as long as they're enjoying the lessons and are progressing it doesn't matter too much

[ChaosAndCrumbs]

My 5yo had no skills and low confidence. He started 1:1 swimming around age 6 and in a year or two he’s swimming strokes and will dive down to the bottom of the pool to get a brick. I think the leg kicking can be hard for them to get, alongside body position in water, but I reckon your DS will be swimming basic strokes in a year or two. The confidence is the key thing and then the strokes will gradually come and improve. Some children are definitely more natural swimmers (I was and my dd is but my ds struggled with it initially), but they all get there with perseverance!

[NoKnit]

At just turned 5 my son could swim 25m

He passed the bronze badge (so swam 200m in under 20 minutes) just before he turned 6.

We aren't in the UK and I seem to think it's very different there. Here they start learning at 5 or earliest 4 as able to follow instructions. Within a few weeks they are able to swim

[OnaKitchenRoll]

My 5 year old is in stage 2. To be honest if their older sibling weren't swimming at the same time I wouldn't bother. I don't think most kids learn swimming very quickly at that age, but there's no harm in having fun and getting some water confidence. My older two didn't start lessons til 7/8 at which point they picked it up really quickly and went up several stages in a year.

Another thing to watch is not getting too hung up on the levels as they can be applied unevenly across different providers- I've used two different leisure centres and the difference in standard at the same level was massive, e.g. Stage 5 warm up was harder at centre 1 than anything stage 7 did at centre 2.

[Marmite27]

DC2 is 6 in April. They’re at 93% complete of the Swim England level 3 curriculum.

They got their 10m distance award last week.

[Bunnycat101]

My 4 (nearly 5) year old is in stage 2 but has made very little progress in lessons tbh. She’s been able to swim a width on her back since she was 3 and she’s good on her back but struggles with the coordination to manage breathing and swimming on her front which is pretty common as there is such a lot for their little bodies to have to do at once. That said, I’ve seen her do 10m on holiday- she just doesn’t seem to be able to do it in lessons…

And I very much agree with @OnaKitchenRoll about variation between providers. My eldest is in a swim club doing multiple lengths with good technique etc and still hasn’t ticked off 25m in her leisure centre stage 5 lessons for some totally unfathomable reason.