Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Extra-curricular activities

Find advice on the best extra curricular activities in secondary schools and primary schools here.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

Why is MAKING kids do swimming lessons, even when they don't enjoy them, apparently so important?

41 replies

Scrumplet · 30/01/2009 12:40

Genuinely interested to know why this is such a prevailing must-do activity. Perhaps I'm being a bit thick here, but I don't entirely understand the urgency. Thanks in advance for explaining.

OP posts:

Niecie · 30/01/2009 13:40

You may be right Foreveroptimistic.

But the thought of him learning and probably having to be rescued on a daily basis whilst he is having the lessons fills me with dread, especially as I don't think he would want to carry on afterwards.

I don't swim very well - I had a few lessons as school, I could probably swim a couple of lengths and I have never felt the need to learn any further nor have I ever felt I was missing out. I haven't been swimming since I was about 21 and I am very very pleased I don't have to go now.

fluffles · 30/01/2009 13:42

In my experience school lessons are horrible with too many kids in the pool and not enough well-teachers.

For that reason i'd like to choose my child's swimming teacher myself and have them confident and happy with the water BEFORE swimming lessons at school begin. Then they can take or leave what they get taught at school but it shouldn't put them off if they like their out-of-school swimming lessons.

fluffles · 30/01/2009 13:43

well-trained teachers not well-teachers

cory · 30/01/2009 15:00

There is always the option of teaching your child yourself.

But I do think they ought to learn.

Lancelottie · 30/01/2009 15:10

Mine have all been sailing at four, yes.

There was an interestingly horrible moment two years back when my then-11-yr-old sped halfway across a lake in his titchy dinghy and capsized himself and his 4-yr-old sister. He did a textbook rescue while she bobbed about spluttering in her lifejacket, but I wasa very conscious that a couple of lifejacket straps were all that were between her and the bottom of the lake. We've stepped up the swimming lessons in case of lifejacket carelessness.

Actually, round here, it's bloody difficult to find a pool open for casual family swimming, except maybe for 45 minutes at the weekend. They're booked solid with swimming lessons, over-60s swims and birthday parties.

alarkaspree · 30/01/2009 15:14

I'm a bit torn about this. Dd is 4, loves going swimming with me and swims using a flotation aid. She has so far resisted swimming lessons whenever I have suggested it and I haven't pushed it because I want her to enjoy swimming and I think building confidence and enjoyment in the water with me is a good first step. I swam independently at 5 without having had any actual lessons, although I had lessons later.

BUT I know that the main reason dd doesn't want to have lessons is because she doesn't want to be made to put her face in the water, and I know I'm not the best person to get her to do that. So I will insist on lessons within the next couple of years, whether she wants them or not. She is not going to be swimming around with her head in the air at the age of 45!

chisigirl · 30/01/2009 15:19

I think it's because swimming is such a useful skill and can bring about so much fun throughout your life. if you're a reasonable strong swimmer you can:

swim in the sea/lakes/rivers on your holidays
get some exercise without it costing a fortune
go swimming with your friends and to pool parties confidently
take part in lots of water sports such as rowing, canoeing, kayaking, diving, scuba, etc.
swim competitively
get a job as a life-guard while at school/uni

I was sooo nervous about going to swimming lessons as a child and didn't enjoy it at all but my parents persisted and once i got the hang of it i was so pleased that they made me go. My mother never learned to swim (she didn't like it and her parents just let her give it up) and has always regretted it. Although she did learn in her 50s and was delighted!

having said all that, I don't think it's necessary to take a baby. if the baby likes it fine but i think it's mainly for the parent's benefit (ie an activity to get out of the house with a young one!)

Simplysally · 30/01/2009 15:19

I sent my dd to swimming lessons at 3 as I had a bad experience in school lessons and it took me another 2 years to master a width. Dd can now swim, with various strokes, and is very happy in the water - a year before her school lessons begins. That alone makes it worth every penny spent on lessons, costumes, goggles, petrol and snacks afterwards .

I didn't want a repeat of my fears with dd as I still gibber when I go out of my depth and I have to persuade myself I can swim.

Simplysally · 30/01/2009 15:21

Btw a good instructor will persuade, not force a child to put their head in the water by using toys they can dive/swim down for and so on.

Ivykaty44 · 30/01/2009 15:24

My grandfather was taught to swim in the river as his uncle had drown there. So it was instilled in me you teach your children to swim so they dont drown

Habbibu · 30/01/2009 15:29

I was made to learn to swim from age 4 or 5, and like anything I'm made to do, I resisted it like mad. But I'm so grateful to my mum that she did it now. She is not a strong swimmer, and was determined that we'd be as safe as possible in water.

I take dd (2) swimming every week - not for lessons - but I do make sure that she's very used to having her head and face underwater, as I think that will speed up swimming lessons when she's older and make them more fun.

christywhisty · 30/01/2009 15:46

"get a job as a life-guard while at school/uni"

Thats why my DS is doing his bronze medallion now

Bubbaluv · 30/01/2009 16:15

"But lots of things could help save their - and other people's lives - like first aid courses, self defence/martial arts"

A 3, 4, 5 yo is not likely to be able to deliver a life saving karate kick or perform life saving first aid, but they might make it to the edge of the pool if they know how to swim.

In Australia(where I'm from) it's considered a basic assumed skill like learning to read or ride a bike, and I feel so dreadful that DS has not been doing swimming lessons (he's 17mo) but he's always got a cold or other ailment and it would just seem mean! Plus it's too blardy cold to think about swimming for me!

Bubbaluv · 30/01/2009 16:20

BTW, I know of 2 families who have lost children to drowning in family swimming pools. Children CAN and do learn to swim very well well before they are 4 - they swim along under water like little tadpole/frogs and come up for air when needed. Very cute!
Fear is what makes babies sink to the bottom.

hippipotamiHasLostTwoPounds · 30/01/2009 20:23

Agree completely with bubbaluv. I grew up in Holland and swimming was compulsory. You had swimming lessons with school from teh age of 6.

MusicLady · 30/01/2009 22:22

Agree with Bubbaluv - I grew up in NZ and learning to swim was just part of growing up. Obviously a slightly different outdoors environment (not so f**king cold or dark for 6 months of the year) but we all did it. My DCs have done swimming lessons and have loved it, but even if they didn't, I'd make sure they went - my DS fell in PIL's pond when he was 18 months (fortunately we were watching at the time), and ever since then I've been paranoid about the dangers of water.

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread