Teaching a toddler to swim

alias*alibi

daska wrote: »

Yes, but you wrote that while I was posting hence my adding my last comment.

Can you swim? Well enough to teach her a good technique? If you teach her bad techniques it will take longer to train her out of them if she wants to go further than playing in the pool. (Which may have the unintended effect of it costing more.) But what you start with (and you have from the sound of it) is teaching her water confidence and safety, how to float etc.

On a practical level I would recommend a swimfin, these naturally adjust to provide an appropriate level of buoyancy for the learner, brilliant bit of kit.

I second the swimfin; my daughter was terrified of water but after introducing the swimfin she gained confidence and now goes to swimming lessons where she now swims unaided. It's a great invention.

City_Girl_2

Our twin boys, now 5, have been swimming in classes since 16 weeks old and I can say from our opinion that the classes/lessons have definitely paid off they are such strong and confident swimmers it's great to see.

Our boys had lessons without us being in the water at 3 and they are now the youngest by far in their swimming class doing what much bigger, older kids do no problem.

We will be stopping private classes when the boys start year 2 in Sept 2013 as they will go with school then and with us for fun:)

CITY

onlyroz

At our local-authority pool the parents have to go in with the under-threes during the lessons. They charge around £70-£80 a term (which is around 10 lesson). My son (age 7) is currently having lessons in their group for "nervous" non-swimmers.

My daughter has had swimming lessons at nursery since she was two. I think that they have lessons in groups of four with the teacher either on the side or in the water with them. It isn't expected that she will learn to swim unaided by the time she leaves, but it should give her a good start.

daveyjp

Wait until 5 or 6 before spending money on lessons. I watch 4 year olds trying to be taught and its frustrating for them and the trainer.

Mrs_Imp

Aylesburygirl, are you in Aylesbury itself?

Which pools have you looked in to?

The lessons at Booker Park School always look pretty reasonable. Admittedly I've never really stayed to watch them - I used to take DS to Waterbabies, which was on just before the older children. The pool is always nice and warm, as are the changing rooms.

fawd1

or do what my mum did when she decided to teach my LO to swim. Buy some armbands, hold them up by their swimming costume bottoms and say "kick, kick, kick". No joke, within 3 hours (over 2 days) he was swimming by himself without armbands. No, it wasn't breast stroke, or front crawl, but he was swimming, was confident and really happy in the water. Having been a child who was terrified of letting go no more than 3 days previously, it was a massive step.

Spendless

I started both of mine off with formal swimming lessons at 3, and in hindsight it was a mistake for them. Both packed in having not progressed much. Eldest then went back when he was just 5 and had passed all the council run levels before he was 7.5. Youngest was left 'traumatised' following an incident when she was 4 at classes and refused to go swimming again until she was 6.5. She still has formal swimming lessons now (she's now 9.5) and has her level plus the one above to complete.

In both cases I would say that water confidence had to come first. Once that was mastered, they were able to go to classes without the problems they'd had before. So things like not having arm-bands, being happy to have your face splashed with water are steps I'd start with.

pukkamum

We have taught all our children to swim ourselves, no way can I afford the time and money needed to send 3 kids to swimming lessons.

They all had armbands at first, so they can play and get used to the water then we took one off then none, it was a slow process but it was done with no fear and they all love the water.

One of the best things you can start by doing is teaching them how to float, once they can float they feel much more confident that they aren't going drown and if they get tired whilst swimming they can just lie back and float.

When we go swimming now they have half the time for playing and half for proper practice.

ladybez

My eldest started lessons at 5 at council run pool, progress very slow, at 8 changed to a private swim school and within 18 months achieved ASA gold. Other 3 children started with same private provider at 31/2 and all had ASA gold before the age of 9. Eldest now works for same provider and if teaching the most inexperienced class has 3 helpers and a level 1 teacher in the water with level 2 teacher on poolside for a class of up to 12.
Why don't you ask other parents you know what their experiences are? And perhaps look at private providers? hth

eilidh_s

I used to be a swimming teacher and I can honestly say that if you want your child to be able to swim well with a good technique then lessons are the way to go. However, at 3.5 years old, the ability just to float around and to have a bit of confidence in the water is more important.

Get your kid into armbands and away from the side of the pool, splash around, make a noise, have fun and make sure they get their face wet. When they are used to being splashed and getting their face wet then progress to getting their head under the water. Once they are at that stage then lessons will be a breeze!

Many children use the armbands as a crutch and it is lack of confidence that holds them back, if they are fine with getting their hair wet and going underwater but panic when the bands come off then the best thing I found was to subtly open the valve. As time passes, the bands deflate and the kid is floating and playing by themselves. When you point out that they are doing it themselves, usually that gives them the confidence to take them off!

I can't stress confidence enough though. If your child should ever fall into water, there is no point in having the perfect breast stroke if they panic because they don't have armbands.