Swimming lessons....

[Monstermoomin]

My daughter 3.5 is currently having weekly swimming lessons in a leisure centre with instructors.

Backstory of swimming, we went to toddler and parent structures class from around 18 months-2.5 years and then due to moving we stopped proper lessons and just went to a open swimming type thing weekly until I couldn't take her anymore due to pregnancy.

She started swimming lessons at the leisure centre about 5 months ago and we've had issue after issue. She doesn't really pay attention and gets bored easily so does typical things like not listen, swim on circles, take off her goggles, climbs out the pool and sometimes tries to take her armbands off. She seemed to do a lot better when it was a quieter class but had to move due to progressing up levels.

Looking for advice on whether I should look at taking her out of lessons for a bit. I want her to learn how to swim as I think it's essential for water safety but I don't know if this is the right time.

You've got to be the judge, since you're able to tell whether her swimming is improving week on week.

I started mine off young, too, and have mixed feelings. On the plus side, it was great that they could swim a little while we were on holiday (they had flotation devices on all the time, of course, but they weren't scared of the water).

On the minus side, it was a lot of money &h hassle over the years .... and I was a bit shocked when they got to about 10 and were still pretty poor swimmers, and I realised they would have reached the same level at 10 if they'd started at about 9 when they're so much more capable of listening, learning and co-ordinating their movements.

My 3.5 DS goes to swimming lessons for 2 main reasons -

1. Fun. He clearly really enjoys it.
2. He has developed the reflex to hold his breath/not panic if he find himself under water.

I don't see a lot of progress in his ability to swim, week by week. He has done a term of lessons so far.

Due to moving house, then Covid waiting lists etc, my DD didn't start proper lessons to 8.5 after having toddler lessons until 4, then just having fun.

She was put on Level 4, and had progressed to Level 6 in 7 months (when we stopped).

Swimming is essential. But honestly at 3, water safety and confidence is the important bit.

We did toddler lessons, then swimming by ourselves for fun, practising floating, jumping in, diving to the bottom and swimming widths/lengths. My dd has just gone back into lessons age 8 and is on level 3, everyone in her group is her age so she isn't any further behind than a lot her age and she is enjoying it and progressing rapidly. If she's not listening and enjoying it right now then take her out and focus on having fun in the pool and developing water confidence.

Yes it hasn't really been improving since she changed to an afternoon class unfortunately.

The instructor doesn't really bother either, just sort of sits on the side and there's a male instructor in the pool who just stops her getting out.

She loves the water and is confident in it. We had a pool in the garden in the summer (just a small one from Tesco) and she loved going in it and swimming around but I think the lessons are very distracting for her as there's so much noise in the leisure centre pool.

I think hearing that others haven't really noticed a difference going back at a later age, I might look at stopping them and just trying to take her myself (difficulty is I have a baby too and you can only have one child per adult at her age) and then when she's more able to listen (it ever haha) then she can do lessons again.

I found our local leisure centre ones awful, they had about 10 kids in a group and this meant most the lesson was spent waiting for their turn. I found somewhere with smaller groups ( admittedly also twice the price) and the difference was incredible.

I'd take a bit of time off, just take her for fun for a couple of years and then see if you can find a one on one instructor. It's much more expensive, but the results will be so much quicker it'll be essentially the same as paying for years of lessons and only seeing marginal gains.

If they’re recommending goggles and arm bands in lessons, I’d find a different swim school. At this age it should be a mix of learning to enjoy water and also learning what to do if she ends up in water by accident. She won’t have goggles or armbands if she falls in a pond, which may increase her panic if she’s not used to bending in water without them.

Our leisure centre does their lessons in the deep end with no floatation once the kids than travel through the water on their own. Instructor in the water, 4 or 5 kids take turns or go 2/3 at a time if they're more confident. So basically they're forced to do it, can't put feet down. Made the world of difference to my 3 year old. She listens, concentrates and does it and can now swim a length on her own. I'd say it's worth finding the right lessons.

Due to recurrent ear infections i didn't go in the water much when i was little and didn't have lessons until i went with school. I had so little confidence and have never been a strong swimmer, so i personally would never have waited until she was older.