When to start swimming lessons?

[RhymingRabbit3]

DD has just turned 3 and I'm considering starting her with swimming lessons as our local pool offers them from age 3. We have a newborn so it would be good for her to have an activity to do which is active and doesnt require me to do too much 😅

However I think 3 seems quite young and I wonder how much progress she will really make. Is it worth paying for years of swimming lessons or could I start her in a years time and she will quickly catch up anyway?

No issues with water confidence, she loves going with us and splashes about quite happily. I never bothered with water babies lessons or anything when she was tiny.

I'd have said 4 was more like it. Obviously it depends on each child, but do you think she is capable of actually being taught in a group yet?

My DS started at 3. He’ll be 5 in June and he can swim pretty well. Like if he fell in a pool I feel confident he could swim to the side and get himself out

However we live in a location where we’re either at the pool or the beach practically every day in the summer. So for me it’s worth it. I imagine if we’d started at 4 he wouldn't be too far off what he is now, especially with lots of practice.

Also my DS loves swimming lessons so it was worth the money as an activity for us. I plan to start DD at 3 as I don’t think it’s worth it before then

We've just started aged five, TBH i think we left it a bit late although he is doing really well with it. With the next one we're going to start a lot earlier!

Mine started at 6 weeks and 10 months. Both enjoyed it from then (most of the time at least). 3 is definitely not too young.

Ours has started at 3 and it's mainly games, learning basics etc but she absolutely loves it and it knackers her out!! When they hit 4 the real learning begins but I would say go from 3!! You can sit and watch with a tea for 30 mins!

You could try your local swimming club instead of leisure centre, lessons are much cheaper.

DD started swimming lessons at 7.5 years as I couldnt drive before within 2 years she had joined our local competitive swimming club. I think she learnt quickly because she was older and her gross motor skills had developed more. Most of the lessons before stage 4 are essentially just getting comfortable in the water and learning to float so you could work on that in your own time. Before starting her swimming lessons she had no technique but could Doggy paddle the length of the pool, could jump in at the deep end and surface all with me close by obviously, we just played whenever we went and she picked those skills up.

DD1 started at four. Within a year she had caught up with her friends who started as babies/toddlers. By 6, you couldn't tell who started when.

DD2 did do toddler lessons, it gave her confidence, but they don't do actual strokes until 4 anyway.

The main benefit will be, if it's an unaccompanied lesson, that she will be able to swim regularly, which can quite hard with a baby and a toddler/preschooler.

DD started at 6 and flew through the stages overtaking her friends who had started younger.
We (well mostly DP) did take her to the pool regularly before this and she was quite happy in the water. She hadn't wanted to do lessons sooner but then suddenly was super keen to.

We tried starting “proper” unaccompanied swimming lessons with Dd at 3 (this was the minimum age they allowed. It absolutely terrified her (not the water itself but the being in the pool with lots of children and a teacher she didn’t know). We lasted about six weeks of her being quite upset whilst they encouraged us to keep trying etc. We then pulled her out and started her again at 5 and she had her 400m badge by the time she was 7.

Ds has started aged 5, I think it’s pretty much a waste of money before then if you can teach water confidence.
Round here 5 is considered very late to be starting. Ds is at the same level as the kids who have been doing it for years.
If you can take her and your new baby swimming I’d invest in another class. But if it’s classes or now swimming then the class seems like a good idea.

My advice is sooner rather than later and now seems like a good time if you have a newborn as well. Reason for my advice is that I taught mine the basics and thought I'd get them having lessons when they were a bit older (5ish?) but by the time they were 5, they refused to go (both shy and anxious about new things) and the only lessons they have had have been with school. So they can both swim but not far and not confidently, something I really regret as I feel I've failed them by not giving them the skills they might need - and because I love swimming! On the other hand, they aren't as likely to get themselves into a dangerous water situation as they aren't confident enough to go out of their depth or do a water activity like canoeing, so there is a bit of a positive!

• or NO swimming

I started dd when she was 6 weeks old.

Some 2 year olds in group above ours can swim. Think it just depends. I always took dd because it wore her out made it priceless. Although get that isn’t possible for everyone ect.

6 months, but you've left it a bit late...seriously, the earlier the better, it's all about confidence in the water and seeing it as fun.

We waited till 4 then had to wait 8 months to get a weekend space so if the lessons are popular get in as soon as possible.

DS was approaching 5 theres a few younger ones in his class however some of them cry for their Mums can't follow instructions as well or need a wee every 5 minutes which does interrupt the lessons. It depends how your child will cope being without you in the water and take instruction from a stranger. Most places will generally let you have a trial lesson to see how they are before committing to a block of lessons.

Red sheep that’s sort of what I thought, my friends got a 3 year old DS and he refused to go in water and hates formal lessons. She wishes she started before the fear set in.

My dd 15 months jumps in, I joined because of the other learning too, like motor skills, strength, coordination ect. It’s not just about formal “swimming” our lessons are songs and games in the water.

I started both of mine at 3, dd1 swam without any aids within weeks, whereas dd2 is not quite swimming without aids 1 year later (though she had less experience beforehand as hated swimming as a toddler). Dd1 is 6.5 now and can swim 50m, but children starting later will be catching up with her now. But she's certainly had more fun in the intervening 3 years being able to swim independently on holiday etc.

The earlier the better. I started my older two at 12 months. They are now great swimmers. I started my youngest at around 2.5 and swimming for her has not gone so smoothly. The fear had set in. Its all about building up water confidence.

I'm a swim teacher, I teach in two different places one where we start at 3 in ducklings 3-5 years old then stage 1 age 5 and I also work at an private swim school where we take from age 4. The private school is more swimming based and the leisure is more game based and both have good and bad points. My DS is 3 almost 4 would struggle in the private school classes due to it being more structured but would likely enjoy the leisure centre classes so its dependant on the child. My DD went to the private swim school from 4 and half and is in our stage 3 (which is different to the swim England programme)