Teaching a 3 year old to swim

[twiglett]

message withdrawn

In my experience it's difficult to 'teach' them as such at such an early age. DS1 is now 4 and was showing lots of interest after out holiday last year when he spent most of it in the pool with him arm bands on.

When we came back we enrolled him into swimming lessons (half hours) and he was then about 3.8 yrs. He is making progress, but doesn't really listen. And he definitely doesn't listen when we take to the pool to 'practice'.
I think the best thing is to just get them confident with the water - jumping in while you catch them / getting their face wet etc etc.
If you wanted to try to teach him, I'd invest in a float and one of those bendy tubes, then he can learn about kicking backwards and forwards.

Good luck.

message withdrawn

I actually liked taking ds in the pool when pregnant. In the water only time I felt a bit comfortable. Have not gone since as not sure how to cope with ds and dd as well.

The lessons I take DS2 (3) to are ones when you're in the pool with them but these are in the sort where you don't use an arm bands etc and are in the deep end (5' There are certainly lessons for this age in training pools which don't involve you getting in though as friends have used them.

Get your DS used to the water first so he's not afraid of being splashed or going under. You might need to book lessons now though as they get filled up really quickly around here (S London/Surrey).

I think the swimming lessons we've had for DSs have been the worth every penny.

Continuing on from Mo2's suggestion has already said. I started with my two from quite early on and they started swimming lessons when they were 3 - to be honest, I think the kids need to have a reasonable level of confidence in the water prior to starting lessons to get anything from them. IMO the things to start with are:
Splashing their faces moving them on to jumping in from the side into mum's arms, eventually dunking them under a bit to get them used to it.
Blowing bubbles in the water is good for getting them used to having their faces in the water.
My two used to love playing crocodiles (only possible in a sloped beach type pool - this is where they lay on the bottom and 'snap' with their arms and encourages them to stretch out their bodies.

Once they have a bit of confidence in the water encourage them to splash their legs whilst they are on their fronts and backs (holding a float in arms helps them on their backs. Our teachers used to remove armbands and swoosh them around in the water encouraging them to adopt the correct body position for swimming. Holding on to the side and kicking out is another way of encouraging them to stretch out. Could you not find out when the 3 year old lessons are at your local pool and go along and watch a few sessions to get some ideas from them?

I didn't know it was possible to 'swim' at 3. My ds is 2.6 and loves the water and splashes and kicks his legs with his waterwings on, but I wouldn't call it swimming.

Don't be mortified Twiglett - even if he had been doing lessons from an early age he would not necessarily be swimming, or even that fond of pools, by now.
I used to swim miles too and I've also left ds to fester on the learning to swim front until he was four and asked to learn. Our local borough has brilliant swimming class provision and four is the earliest at which they will do classes in a special teaching pool without parents having to get in.
If it helps at all Twiglett, ds is the only one in a class of 15 who is getting ANY swimming lessons at present, (school starts them at seven) so your non-swimming toddler is the norm not the exception!

My ds got his 5 metre badge when just 3 - bless him!! Although I couldn't really describe it as swimming - just getting from A to B unaided without putting his feet down.

Sorry - that wasn't meant to sound as though I was bragging just that it is possible for them to 'swim' at 3 but as Marina says that is the exception rather than the norm.

Hi,
I have been taking DD2 to mums and tots swimming lessions since she was about 12 months old - and as others have siad it is just confidence building. In jan she started in a class on her own at 3years old ( great for me not having to get into the pool at 9.30 every Sat morning!!) - She really oves it BUT she is no better than my friends three year old who has had much less exposure to the water - so I would say if you/DS enjoy it then great but don't feel pressured to do it as it won't hamper their swimming skills in later life!!

Mo2 makes an interesting point because, at this age, you certainly need to take into account the personality of the child. I took DS to 'Aquababies' from 4 months until about 15 months at which point he refused point blank to do any of the lesson bits (not really lesson but more than splashing around IFYKWIM). The teacher taught lots of children from as young as 12 weeks who were swimming properly by 2yrs so it's definitely possible.

DS is now 2.5 and has an amazing confidence in water, will happily go underwater, in deep pools etc with no armbands but he certainly can't swim and I have to be really careful because actually he is much more confident than he should be given that he can't swim! I take him every week and we just splash about and he jumps in etc but that's about it.

I am going to try him with lessons again when he's about 4 but I think he I try any earlier he just won't want to be told what to do and it'll be a bit of a fruitless excercise.

If I were you twiglett I'd just try taking him yourself for a while and see if he likes it.

Is ability to learn to swim early related to body fat? Just wonder... DH can't just lie back and float -- says he's too skinny! I think 4yo DS would struggle to "swim", too, for the same reason; too big a head on too skinny a body. He is starting to swim underwater, but I think it will be a long time before he can 'swim' above surface.

My boys were well up at primary school before they could swim and I think dd might have been 12-ish. Dd2 was six when she learnt. I was astonished to see tiny Australian children in Jakarta swimming like fishes from the age of about 18mths! They were most definitely swimming, absolutely 100% confident, jumping in, swimming to retrieve things at the bottom etc. Talking to the parents, it seems Australians don't use any aids apart from float boards, and of course they have the opportunity of much more regular and easy access to pools than we do.

Mrs Grump - body fat content does help you float. In order to float an 'average' person needs to have 95% of their body below the water in order to be buoyant ... Body fat is more dense than muscle, so if you are quite obese then it will be easier to float, and vice versa.

But swimming isn't just about floating - it's about power and propulsion.

Suedonim, the "no bouyancy aids" route is how a lot of the current baby swimming lessons work. The idea being that the bouyancy aid interferes with the proper position I think. If you start the child as a baby, they simply don't realise that armbands etc might help and they just seem to get on with it.

yep - in DS's babyswim class they didn't have any bouyancy aids.

Have been taking DS to baby/toddler sessions since 12 weeks old. DH can't swim and is quite adverse to being in the water full stop so I feel a greater responsibility. I'm making a special effort at the moment because I'm not sure how things will go when the baby is born (at least at first). And at least I can hold DS in the water comfortably.

Don't think he's learned much - just the confidence side of things. Have been thinking about getting him proper lessons but I think in our area you need to get in with them even for lessons at that age. So I'm thinking I'll wait until September when baby is a few months old and DS is 3 1/2 to start.

Just a quick word of warning - think you might have to book in advance quite a bit for lessons. Also another thing. I find my maternity costume is quite low cut at the bottom so I haven't bothered about my bikini line just got DH to shorten pubes with hair clippers. But then again since I can't see it, I could be displaying all sorts. .

Sorry Bozza but the mental piccie of you being clipped by your dh had made me PMSL

Phew ... I don't feel quite so bad now. I have probably taken ds (4 today!) to a local pool twice, and he reluctantly went in the site pools abroad last year. I've been more the type to take him to the park/farms etc. and he's never asked to go swimming yet. But we are moving this w/e to the coast from London so I am going to make it my mission to get to the pool or enrolled in classes ASAP.

(Which prompts me to start another thread on moving ...!)

Hope your move goes well Jodee! I know you'll have hundreds of things to do when you get there, but if you really do want lessons next term, then I would recommend popping down the leisure centre at the new place at the first opportunity.

"Open" registration for next term's lessons at our pool is a week on Monday (5 April). Priority booking for those in existing lesson will have been taken by then, and the remaining spaces go pretty quickly.

A word of warning if boking swimming lesons for toddlers who aren't used to the water: our local pool reserves the right to remove kids from lessons if the instructor feels that they aren't coping/are disruptive. DD started a few weeks ago and there was a little boy in her group who screamed all through the lessons and was clearly petrified. after 3 weeks with no improvement the instructor has told the mother not to bring him back until he is happy to be in the pool. TBH I'm quite relieved as (a) it seemed cruel to make him do something that was clearly upsetting him so much (he was retching on occasion) (b) as the instructor had to hold onto him all the time it meant the other 3 kids in the group were pretty much left to paddle around on their own which didn't seem a very good idea.

My ds1 will be starting a so-called "crash" course in swimming over the Easter break - a half-hour each morning. He will be 3 tomorrow (already?! - help!). TBH I'm not sure how he will take to it - he's fine jumping into the water with arm-bands on etc, but not too hot on listening and obeying orders. It is more experimental, and partly due to the fact that the waiting list locally is ages (over a year for council pool, and 9 months for my private gym).