Swimming Lessons?

[Amethyst86]

What age did you start teaching your kids to swim and what did you find the best way - teaching them yourself or formal swimming lessons?

ds did a week crash course summer 06, when he was 3.10y, then another the following summer at 4.10y and then started weekly lessons this Sep at 4.11y. He got his 10m badge last week
We tend to go quite regularly at the weekends aswell.

Mine had mother and baby lessons from ds 1yr and dd 6 months ,then tadpole/frogs classes from 3.
The mother and baby lessons are more for fun, and teaches them safety ie to automatically turn towards the side when they jump in the water etc. Not to panic when their face is underwater etc

The tadpole/frog classes from 3 to 5 have the teacher in the pool with the children. Lots of games and water confidence building.

Both my children have good style which I don't think you get by teaching them yourselves. Also lessons will teach you how to breathe properly, which a lot of people don't realise the importance of .

DD started swimming lessons when she was 5. Round here children can't start formal lessons, without a prarent, in the public pools until they are 5y.

I took DD on and off a bit when she was tiny but I don't really like swimming much so rarely went. Once she started lessons she really took off. She learnt to swim unaided within the first block of swimming sessions (blocks of 8). We have recently had a few months away from lessons but she restarted last week and is enjoying it.

I have taken all 3 of mine since being 4 months old. Ds1 did a crash course of lessons Easter 06, when 4.10, then started weekly lessons April 06, which he still does. He has also had school lessons since Y1. It has been a hard slog for him, but he has just got 20m badge.

Dd - started weekly lessons Sep 07, aged 4.1, but we are stopping them at Christmas as she does much better with just me taking her. She can swim about half a width of the small pool without any flotation aids, but finds the lesson context very hard.

Ds2 - take him once or twice a week, he loves just playing in the water with me. He is 19 months and can swim on his front with armbands, float on his back (with armbands) and can jump in from sitting on the side (he can't stand so can't do standing jumps ).

DD1 started swimming lessons at three and a half, because she said she wanted to, and I was delighted that my previously shy and retiring daughter was so keen to do something where I wouldn't be right by her side. After two solid years of lessons, she is "swimming" in her own, eccentric fashion, but only just.

Her best friend did hardly any swimming at all until they started having lessons at school. She went from being a total non-swimmer to having earned her 10 metre badge, in the space of about six weeks!

I reckon that, to some extent, kids swim when they have the right physique and co-ordination for it. So no need to push the lessons until they are keen to have a go. But it is a good idea to go swimming as a family, often enough that they have no fear of the water. I see so many children at lessons who are plainly terrified and not having a good time at all

ds swam with dh from age of 4,maybe earlier, just playing and splashing around with arm bands etc, then swimming with school in yr 3 and 4 - he was still very nervous of the water between yr 4 and 5 so started him on one to one lessons in that summer - he is now 10 and loves swimming,loves the individual lessons and although he lacks technique (he has coordination difficulties) he swims well

we did little swimmers together between 9 and 18mths which is great for fun/water confidence.
Started lessons with best friend at 3. Now 3.5 and he can kick and paddle like a little dog (with constant supervision of course).

Key is a FUN teacher and NO FORMAL tuition (ie: do this/do that).
You can do it yourself by taking toys in the swimming pool and encouraging her/him to throw and fetch, race, jump with props like humpty dumpty etc....
The first thing to teach is to go back to the wall. Stand about 1 metre from wall and encourage to swim back to wall. Gradually go to 2metre, 3 etc...

But you have to be consistent and go once/twice a week.
And give lots of praise. And if time does not seem right, postpone.
A really good trigger is right after a holiday in the sun where they get a chance to do a lot of swimming/mucking about in the water.

PS: Once you get rid of floaties, never look back. The teacher said when they start learning to swim, floaties just encourage them to be lazy. They need to build up strenght.

My dds just came with us when we went swimming. Dd1 started lessons the Jan after we arrived back in Aus - she was about 2 1/2 - formal lessons.

dd2 went to mother and toddler classes from about 18 months old and then at roughly 2 1/2 started formal lessons.

Living in Aus - swimming is a non negotiable so we make sure they have formal lessons and we just swim and play as well as getting them to practice the things they have learnt if we take them to the pool.

the mother and toddler class is about building confidence and safety - so practising going back to the ledge, blowing bubbles, games etc.

We started lessons at around 4.5 and I think that was about right for DD. Structured lessons best IMO (with a very patient and fun loving teacher if poss!) as I know I would have quickly become very impatient with DD. She took about 10 lessons of patient coaxing and repitition to learn to put her face in the water but since then has blossomed and loves it. After a year she can do a decent attempt at freestyle with breathing and backstroke although she still finds it hard to coordinate everything. She has a love of water now that I just don't think she would have got from me as I've never been a very confident swimmer. Sadly her pool is closing soon to make way for a supermarket