Do/did you child have swimming lessons?

[Irishflower]

DS 5 can swim with a woggle and is happy going swimming with mummy and daddy but I wonder if he should be having proper swimming lessons?! A few of his friends have them.
Do you take your little ones to swimming lessons?
Or do you just take them swimming and have they learnt ok from you?

Both DS have had lessons since 10 weeks old.
Eldest is nearly 4 and swimming on his own youngest is 9 months but started going under water and kicks his legs.

Fir me lessons isn't just about swimming it also teaches them water safety and how to potentially hold on or get out

Swimming lessons until they are safe in water ,after that carry on if they are enjoying swimming and it’s affordable.

Mine are 3 and 6. They both have lessons on a Sunday and the 6 year old swims once a week in school as well. Lessons are non negotiable in our household, swimming is an important life skill and good exercise. The 6 year old can swim quite well now, 100m+ and working on technique. The 3 year old is just starting to be able to swim a few metres without a float.

A colleague recommended waiting until he was a little older and doing 1-1 lessons over a shorter period and blast it instead of spending years and years going to lessons, the theory being it would be cheaper in the long run and he wouldnt get demotivated.

So we put ds on the waiting list for both group and private when he was 7-8ish. Group came up first and when he had been going for 6 weeks we got offered 1-1 so we took that too. After the 10 week block we kept both going. Within around 8-9 months he had gone through every level sometimes jumping 2 at a time, we then stopped 1-1 and he was doing his rookie life. Iirc 10 years ago Group lessons were around £6/hr, the 1-1 was £9 for 20 mins in the council leisure center, 20mins doesn't sound a lot but it is when it is all swimming and he did more swimming in 20mins than an hour of group lessons. His technique is amazing and he glides easily through the water, and it did end up cheaper and much better than several years of show progress.

Both of mine have had lessons since they were 4 - with a gap in the middle for Covid. DD1, who is 9, is now refining her strokes (including butterfly) and practicing diving technique. DD2 (6, so hasn't cumulatively been swimming for long considering we had an enforced yr/18mo off!) can swim independently with no floats, float on her front and back, and mostly spends her free time in the pool mastering her handstands. It's an essential life skill IMO and we've now got to the stage where they are swimming independently and confidently.

We did water babies from 4 months I think, swimming lessons until they are a strong confident swimmer is non-negotiable, it's too important a skill.

Ours all learned at a swimming club.
They all learned really efficient strokes which means they swim without using huge amounts of energy, so can swim further without tiring. Cheaper than council as well.

My 4 year old has been having lessons since he was 2.

But we live opposite a canal and so I need him to be a strong swimmer jic.

Both our DC have had swimming lessons since they were babies. Obviously had a break during Covid, but now back at it.
DD(8) does one paid lesson a week & one lesson with school a week. DS(4) does one paid lesson a week - he's much further behind due to Covid but making progress.
Definitely do it if you can afford it; don't assume they'll get a decent amount of lessons at school unless yours is like ours (every week from Yr3-6).

It is an essential expenditure IMO. Not only is it important from a life skill/safety POV and for fitness, so many other activities revolve around water and an assumption of being able to swim. You may be able to teach them to not sink like a stone or how to get across a pool using some rough form of stroke yourself, but that won't make them competent swimmers.

And I agree with the PP about not relying on school swimming lessons - they are often only a very short course of lessons and not enough to take a non-swimmer to anywhere near competent. I expect with school budgets struggling further to pay for the absolute basics, this will be an area to receive even more pruning too... I have seen quoted that 1/3 of DCs leave primary unable to swim 25m (which in itself is a long way from a strong and competent swimmer as a marker).

Proper lessons.
Its a life skill and neither me nor their dad can teach them this properly.
lessons were from about aged 5. Still going now at 9 to strengthen technique, learn water skills and heighten water confidence.
Absolutely essential.

Water babies from 4.5 months old, it's an essential life skill and the babies were being dunked under water to 'swim' from the first lesson - gets them so comfortable.

Both of them did baby swimming lessons for about a year. Only because it was the only way to access nice warm hydrotherapy pools. Then just had fun in the pool with me from about age 1 to 4. Then group swimming lessons. DS1 did Rookie Lifeguards and will take his assessment once he turns 16, DS2 is a competitive swimmer both pool and open water.

My 3 all had lessons and learned to swim by 7. Then joined swimming club and through that 2 went on to swim competitively, the other 1 for general fitness.