Are swimming lessons worth it?

[ItsIcyOutsideIThinkINeedThorin]

DD took until she was 9 to learn to swim and she never had any lessons other than at school, which taught her nothing. I tried to teach her and kept working on the 'water confidence is more important' thing as she just wasn't interested in learning with me and wanted to play instead, which I thought was fine. I can swim but was never very good at explaining it to her and I just thought it would come by itself when she was ready (after all, we all grew up learning to swim without lessons!) My mum taught her in the end, as I just couldn't seem to do it

So now it's DS's turn and I can't face years of trying to teach him as well! He is 5.5 and I'm wondering whether lessons would be a better idea. He's even worse than his sister for wanting to play instead of practising and he is very confident in the water so I don't think we need much more practise at that! I really want him to be able to swim by our August holiday - does this seem possible? Not sure how long lessons take to work (though I imagine that's like asking how long is a piece of string). One-to-one lessons are scarily expensive but are they likely to be worth it? I'd be happy to pay it if I thought it would work but I don't want to pay hundreds of pounds for him to sing nursery rhymes and play games in the pool to 'build his confidence' but him still not be able to swim, as I can do that by myself!

Sorry that was long but am very interested to hear people's experiences with lessons, good or bad...

Swimming lessons are worth every penny. I started my DDs the term they turned 4 and they were both swimming confidently in deep water with good technique before they turned 6.

They were both able to swim continuously for 250-300 metres at that age, in backstroke, breaststroke and crawl, could dive and retrieve multiple objects from 6 feet deep and tread water competently.

They've since had school lessons (free where we are, but only one term's worth) and this has been an opportunity to improve their technique.

They're now 9 and 11 and have been kayaking, have done raft building and have both fallen in and come out again. It's money well spent.

Oh, and I finally learned how to do the breathing in front crawl properly through watching them learn, so my own technique has also improved!

The bike-riding is entirely due to laziness on our part

They could do lessons together I suppose, that's something to think about. I hadn't considered it because she can swim and is very confident now - but she only just about managed her 25m badge so she still needs to get better.

If she can do a 25m badge then I would go for a week long intensive course - she's 9, and she's mature enough to take instruction well and see very rapid improvement. If her technique gets better, swimming will be much less of an effort and be more enjoyable for her too.

Um, I wasn't suggesting it was a patenting fail. I was questioning wtaf you were considering trying to do it yourself...

Massive misread, lol.

Parenting. Patenting fail is what iPad should have been whacked with for their abysmal predictive text programme.

I am a swimming teacher, teaching mostly 6 months to 4 years old in very small groups. Agree with the other posters that its vital that your children learn to swim, also that its much better to go to lessons than have parents teach (it's not as easy as it looks and there's a reason why we do days of classroom and pool work and online testing and shadowing before we are qualified).

The place that suggested a 7 year old should be in a toddler class is ridiculous. Yes, groups should be made up according to ability but age is a factor too. Do they want the poor girl to be put off swimming forever by joining a group of toddlers? Totally stupid.

Older children (5+) will pick up the basics quickly as long as they have no phobias or significant confidence issues. Get them in to a class asap

Butterflies, thanks so much for your input too! That place pretty much said themselves what you did - she won't like it, she'll feel like a baby. Way to get yourself some business, eh?!

I don't think there's a set rule...

My DD had swimming classes last year, and the two in her class who were the best swimmers were the two who (to the best of my knowledge) had never had swimming lessons! One was because he had his own swimming pool and so just learnt naturally, and the other was a child whose parents were naturally sporty and took their children swimming every week. In contrast, one of the worst swimmers was my child who had had over a year of weekly swimming lessons, done intensive swimming courses - you name it and still had failed to swim.

In the end, I was desperate for her to learn to swim, and so bought her 10 private lessons (shared with a friend) and within those 10 lessons she went from not letting go of the swimming teacher to swimming 25 meters. This took 3/4 weeks and she was 7. I consider all the money I spent on lessons trying to get her to learn to swim when she was 5 a complete waste of money because she wasn't ready to learn. It wasn't until she was ready that she learnt in an instant!

What I'm saying is there's no hard and fast rule - giving your children lessons won't necessarily make them the best swimmers if they're not ready to learn. Trust me, I learnt this the expensive way!

Another absolute thumbs up for lessons from me.

DD is 6 and can do 25m and is getting into all the different strokes now. She has been in the pool with her dad pretty much fortnightly all her life but it took the lessons for her to get swimming independently.

I would say there is a big difference is the styles of teaching. DD started with a private (but very very big) company lasts summer and didn't make much progress, despite the fact that they had almost one to one ratio, they pretty much always wore armbands. I wasn't keen on that as I thought armbands weren't the best way to teach these days.

We then started her at the local pool which had 6 or so kids to each teacher and no armbands (floats or woggles were used if needed instead) and she was swimming in no time. Also half the price!

Never heard of anyone teaching swimming with armbands. One of the first things you teach is buoyancy and floating, to put children in armbands doesn't make sense. Kick boards are ok, also noodles, barbels, back floats (swim fins are fun) from time to time so that children who can swim a little can concentrate on propulsion, breathing etc but never armbands.

Armbands are ok if you have kids round the pool who are not confident swimmers and you cannot guarantee to be watching them 110% of the time, but I would steer clear of any swimming lesson involving armbands.

An update and another question!

Well I booked DS in for some lessons and he had his first one and did really well. Having flat-out refused to do anything even resembling learning with me, he straightaway did what the teacher asked and tried really hard all lessons, the little monkey :) I'm so glad we did it and very much appreciate all your advice!

Follow-up question about DD, if I may - she can swim but isn't a very strong swimmer yet. She got her 25m badge recently but she did struggled and only just about made it and was then out of breath and shaky for quite a while afterwards (she is very fit so it's not a lack of energy that held her back). So how do children get to be stronger swimmers? Does she just need more practice or would lessons help her become stronger? I'm wondering whether, as she can already swim, she might just be taught technique, which I don't think would improve her stamina/strength...? Or maybe it would; rather confused here.... :)

DS1 is 5.9yo and he's learning how to swim. He's on his third block now and enjoying it. I can't say he's coming on leaps and bounds, lots of mucking about, but the fact that he enjoys it is more important to me than him making huge leaps of progress, tbh. I would rather he was interested in something outwith school, than not at all.

Definitely lessons are worth it. If you want him swimming by the summer then an intensive half term course is a good idea to get him going, I know quite a few people who have done this to good effect. Classes for small children I think are only effective if it's a small group, less frequent one to one lessons are just as effective.

I think you were very brave to try and teach them yourself - I wouldn't even try with my two as I know they'd not pay any attention! Also my 8yo DS has many friends who haven't had lessons so it really isnt that unusual.

Oh and my 5yo uses armbands in lessons sometimes (as well as floats and noodles) but they are the foam disc ones. Maybe invest in some of those for your holiday (just in case!) they don't deflate like the old fashioned ones!

Learning to swim is a vital skill imo. Neither of my dc could swim when they came to me and DH, but they could both swim within 12 months of arriving.

Both also attend swimming lessons now to build on what we taught.

I know I'd be rubbish at teaching my own DC how to swim, I wouldn't know where to start. DS1 goes to a class once a week. They don't wear arm bands.

I'm in process of booking one to one for my Dd who is 5.6.

She has been swimming lots since a baby and has no fear of water.
She is not interested in me teaching her so I have booked £17 half hour lesson in block of four.

In contrast my NCT friends have sent their DC same age to swimming lessons week in week out at local pool. Since they were 2. They must have spent a fortune. There are about 10 children to one adult.

Apparently they all recently since turning 5 can swim! A few meters it seems unaided.

I haven't spent a bean but fully expect that after two hours 1 to 1 tuition, my daughter hopefully will swim. Not butterfly or crawl. Doggy paddle is good enough.

I taught her confidence. I just need a professional to turn it into some form of stroke. I also think that they are not old enough to take instruction until they are about 5.

I would be at armbands in a lesson

Can't remember how long it took for my kids to learn to swim, but they both had group lessons and overtook me in skill quite early on (not that that takes much!) and were literally overtaking me by about age 9 - again, I'm not fast but till that point my size and strength held out over their technique.

You don't say what your own swimming is like, but even if it's good I guess doing isn't the same as teaching.

Yes Leonie is right, my 8yo spends most of his lesson refining technique and swimming lengths back and forth, back and forth building their stamina. She may need some teaching on breathing technique which can probably be learned quite quickly at her age.

Sorry I haven't read the whole thread so apologies if I repeat.

Highly recommend lessons. At 5yo, they won't be singing songs and playing, they will be swimming. Our local group lessons (max 8 per class) work out at £5.50 per 30 min lesson, which I think is very reasonable.

Don't think you should be able to teach them. Some children respond better when being taught by an adult other than their parents.

Good luck!

Thanks again, ladies. He did wear armbands in his lesson which made me worry a bit as you all said it was odd (and the place I'm taking him to is very highly regarded) but they did take them off him later and give him a noodle and some of the other kids weren't wearing armbands. I'll ask them next time.

Maybe will book DD in for some then to see if it helps her stamina. Swim club also a great idea and will check that out, thanks Leonie!

Its not necessarily odd, the teachers at our lessons for the babies, toddlers or if they are particularly nervous in beginners. They use the disc type ones. You can use one, two or three discs at a time.

Yes my DS uses the disc ones as they can adjust the floatiness (technical term). The teacher doesn't use them all the time just occasionally.