Baby swimming lessons versus just going to the pool?

[trrk]

We have been doing some baby swimming lessons (around £45 per month at a local pool) mostly as I wanted to gain some confidence about how to handle her in the pool. After going for a few weeks I don't feel we are getting too much out of it - it's just the same singing songs and moving baby through the water which I could easily do by myself without the class. I don't know if the more expensive options like water babies are any better. Will we lose much by stopping the lessons and just trying to go swimming once a week? What age is good for restarting paid lessons? My baby is currently almost 1.

The main point of booking lessons is to give yourself a commitment IMO, it's like joining a gym vs just working out at home.

You won't be losing anything - the only point to them is to give you/them confidence in the water. You can't start proper lessons until 4/5

Start proper lessons at 4/5 and before then playing in the pool together is much more beneficial and much cheaper.

I did super expensive swimming lessons with ds when he was a baby. While I don’t regret going I came to the conclusion that it was a waste of money unless you can keep it up for several years- once I went back to work I could no longer go and the after work/weekend sessions were exclusively for older children

instead, I started mine off (again) with lessons at 4 ish once they could clearly respond to instructions etc. Yes it took a while and still costs a fortune bur far less faff for me as I just sit on the side.

Just take her. If you do it often-particularly if two people go, you should be able to skip the swimming lesson thing altogether-she'll be swimming by the time she's 5. Make sure you spend a little time every trip helping her to float on her back. When she's big enough get her jumping in, then turning around to hang onto the side. Have lots of fun!

Eh, we deliberated this for AGES, and in the end, we were one of 2 people who didn't do baby swimming - we just did the leisure centre once a week, most weeks, from 9 weeks until 18 months. The rest of our baby group did baby swimming lessons.

We joined baby swimming lessons three weeks ago. He LOVES it. It's exciting to him, he loves all the games, the catching and kicking... I was not sure if it'd be worth the cost at all, especially as we pay £70-odd a month and the leisure centre is £4 a go, but so far he seems to be the perfect age for it.

This

£70 a month is £840 a year on taking an 18 month old swimming!

Literally everything they do at a baby swimming you could replicate easily and cheaply at a family swim normal pool session.

Baby swimming lessons are money for old rope. Save your cash for one-to-one lessons when they're about 4 and they'll learn much quicker than in group lessons where they hardly get any swim time because they're waiting for others to have their turn. In the meantime, keep taking your baby to the pool so they have a positive experience and can pick up the basics from you.

The only things you’ll lose are the forced commitment because at that price you’ll be really reluctant to skip and the social element but you don’t even mention that so maybe your class isn’t much of a friendship draw.

If you go regularly to keep the water confidence and then start proper lessons, ideally in a small group, at 3 years old then they won’t miss out on anything. 3 being ideal because they usually good at following instructions by then and you shouldn’t need to go in the pool too so it’s proper swim lessons.

1:1 isn’t great for all kids, honestly it was useless for mine and she made loads more progress and we saved a ton of money once we switched to a 3:1 group. It was ideal for her as there was peer pressure to follow along and listen but still in low enough numbers to get a good amount of attention from the teacher. I know it can be great for some kids though!

If you’d be committed to going then I’d stop lessons until she’s 3 but personally I tried this and then rarely ended up going

Baby swim lessons are a complete waste of money.

Take her swimming yourself. Restart lessons at about three, once she can pay attention and follow instruction.

1 is a good age to do proper lessons as they will start to learn things that you won't teach (before this it's more about just being comfortable with the water. My son can practically swim now and he's not even 2, I'm amazed at how much these babies learn!

Amazed at the other posts! Maybe it's the teachers, and I am lucky with my swim school.

I found baby swimming a royal pain in the arse. It was always at a shit time for naps, cost a fortune, and was really tricky getting myself dried and dressed after as well as DD1 who hated that bit so would just scream at me. It felt like such an ordeal.

We stopped and just went to the council pool at the weekends as a family. Much cheaper and easier!

I'm curious as to what you think a child between 1-2 learns at baby swimming that you cannot teach them yourself?

Honestly unless you can't actually swim or you're afraid and fearful of the water which you may then pass on to your child a child under 4 won't actually learn anything more at a swimming class than what their own parent can teach them.

I have a 2.5yr old. When I take her swimming myself she just wants to play on the steps and jump in. It’s good fun. In our lessons she has to listen to the teacher and follow instructions, use floats and loads of other equipment, dunk under water, learn how to enter water safely and interact with other children. It’s entirely different. It commits us to go once a week and it’s something we do just the two of us. The lessons are repetitive for a reason, it’s how kids learn. I do council lessons and they’re cheap, and from 3 she can go by herself (bring it on!).

Oh and I’ve taken her every week pretty much since she was 4 months old

Ds has been going to lessons from 12 weeks, firstly with me or DH in the water then without. He's now four , doesn't start school until September and a couple of weeks ago swam his first width of the kiddy pool under water with one breath half way.
I don't think I would've got him to that point alone.
Having said that we live by the sea and water capability can be a life or death matter so it was really important to us that he could swim as early as possible

Also ours is £28 a month for lessons and that includes free swimming for DS at any other time, I also go for free due to my gym membership so it's become a fun and free thing for us to do in between lessons too (council pool)

No, the baby won't be getting anything out of it that you can't do yourself.
What is does do is commit you to going each week, and - for some parents - it can be a way of meeting other parents if you have been a bit isolated.
Of course you wouldn't be saving £45pm, as you would still need to pay to swim 4 or 5 times a month, and here that's £5.75 a time, so around £25 a month.

We won’t go for that long! We’ll go for a month or two and then go back to just taking him to the pool ourselves - but he has come on leaps and bounds having an instructor and other babies and games to play, even with my husband who is a trained lifeguard. And like I said, most of my pregnancy group has been going since the babies were 9/10 weeks, so nearly 16 months - well over a grand each 😵‍💫 Insane; but there’s definitely a market for it.

I take my DD to the pool every other week or so and we just splash around, or she "swims" while I hold her. Costs about £8 a time and we can do our own thing rather than having to follow a group.

As a swimming teacher, baby lessons are a waste or money. It doesn't make them better swimmers. It's all play and water confidence you can do yourself. It when they get older and following instructions they really learn.