Teaching 5 year old to swim

pinkshoes

I need help!

DS1 was too shy for swimming lessons and refused to go. He recently went to a swimming party (parents in pool too), and enjoyed it, so is now enthused to learn.

The problem we now have is that the stage 1 beginner lessons are full of 3 year olds, so for 'babies', so I said I would teaching him the basics first so he can join a higher class with kids his own age.

We have been twice, and have gone from refusing to take his feet off the floor to managing a whole width of the small pool with a rectangular float out in front of him and kicking his legs.

What next??? I have no idea what steps to take next to help him!

Any suggestions?

LilElvis

Try getting one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Swimming-Water-Woggle-Noodle-Yellow/dp/B004TA8388/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1469700476&sr=8-1&keywords=Swimming+woggle

They're brilliant for learning lots of techniques including swimming on your back and learning the arm movements whilst still being supported.

suki1964

Once he is confident with the forward kicking with a float, the next is the face in the water as he kicks along. He's going the have to be confident doing that else he's going to panic when learning the arm movements

Then treading water, leaning to keep up without the float, then the swimming

SailorSam

When i first started to take my two little nieces to the pool each week, one was about 3 the other only a babe-in-arms. I let them learn at their own pace i didn't want to push them, so we use to just play until they gained their own confidence.

whiteguineapig

also , (if it helps anyone else)
one of mine was a bit frightened of the pool and school swimming lessons were looming
i managed to find a lady with her own pool who gave lessons , so just a few children at a time
we later progressed to going to the public pool taking 1 or 2 friends from school with us each time, so he felt comfortable with it all
when he finally had to go with school he was fine

GreenQueen

My daughter had a similar issue - when she was small she got distressed in a swimming pool as she couldn't handle the echoing noise, so missed out on the early water training.

Near us there are a couple of clubs that run intensive lessons over the summer, using school swimming pools. We managed to find one that did an hour every day for a week, no more than three children per adult in the water (although there were several classes in the pool at the same time, working round each other). They grouped them according to ability and age, so there wasn't the problem of being in a group with "babies". She came on very quickly, as there wasn't time to forget what she had done the previous day, unlike weekly lessons. Similar to Whiteguineapig, that gave her the confidence to move on.
GQ

bouicca21

The first time I took mine swimming she was so terrified of the water that she sat on the side for an hour before dipping her toes in. I just kept taking her until she could join a swimming class. It's all about confidence.

If he's is happy putting his face in the water then get him to do so. If he hates it don't force him and start thinking breast stroke and/or backstroke instead of front crawl. Also star floats.

One to one tuition could be good, if you can afford it. Or just look at another pool to see if the age group for lessons there is more appropriate.

jackomdj

Why not explain to him that he needs to start at level one, but because he is a big boy who will listen and learn quickly he should move up through the stages a lot quicker than the younger children.

IMO the problem you will have teaching him yourself, is you are likely to be slower at teaching than the instructor, so those three year olds will still be at his level, all be it stage two or three.

Spendless

Aren't there older children in the beginners class too? I tried both of mine swimming at 3. It was not a success! Both returned when they were 5 and 6 and were swimming within a few weeks.
My leisure centre offered week long intensive courses during the school holidays and then you were put into a weekly class based on your abilities.

onlyroz

It's often easier to teach a slightly older child. I had to withdraw my daughter from lessons at age 4 because she was disruptive. She started again at she 7 and was in a group for "reluctant swimmers" and did much better. She's just got her level 2 and is moving to the level 3 class in September.

PasturesNew

I used to teach this....

I'd just say to anybody: forget learning to swim. Just learn to float, as long as possible ... float and enjoy the floating. From that comes confidence. From that the swimming bit will occur naturally.

Try to "rush" the swimming bit before the floating's nailed and before the fun/confidence is built .... is very often offputting.

Put no expectations on them except - just to float .... by relaxing and building up the core muscles needed to "float effortlessly". No arbitrary targets, no expectations. Just relax .... and float ....