Do you remember how you learned to swim? I vaguely remember being terrified of the water, to the point where I wouldn’t go above my ankles and would spend all the time in the pool sitting on the steps. I wanted to go into the deep end and jump off of the diving boards, but I was too afraid.
When I was about 8 yrs old my mother signed me up for some intensive private swimming lessons. I think I did two sessions, so about 12 weeks, and that was it. I was swimming.
My older kids have taken swimming lessons at a local pond. Lessons which I think proved rather worthless. They have eventually learned to swim, though not with any sort of form. As my oldest son says, “I swim well enough to save myself, but I would never swim across a lake for fun.”
We have now moved to a place where swimming in pools happens every day for the entire spring, summer, and fall. I am hoping that my children who can already swim will perfect their skills and be even more proficient. I mean it is bound to happen, right? And my younger kids are going to be signed up for daily lessons this summer. I really wish that had been available when my oldest children were younger. The only game in town we had was the YMCA which was ridiculously expensive.
What about you? Have you given your children formal swim lessons from an early age? Do you think that there is a perfect time to begin them? I have seen lots of parents with babies and Mom-n-Me lessons and wonder if I should have started long ago.
My mother taught swimming lessons in our backyard pool every summer from the time I was born until I went to college. I don’t ever remember NOT knowing how to swim. She would never take children under 3 years of age. Her philosophy was that any younger than that and they don’t remember from year to year anyway, so you are just basically starting over each year. Also, they are more at risk for developing ear problems.
Comment by Marti — May 31, 2009 @ 10:29 pm
I’ve read that while the really young stuff teaches them “water is fun!”, it doesn’t boost swimming skills. Ours is 4.5, and we’re signing her up this summer.
I myself never learned anything more advanced than a dog paddle. Lucky for me (ha!), my lard-content prevents me from sinking even if I tried.
Comment by Brigitte — June 1, 2009 @ 7:34 am
I found a great swimming lessons program. Each one of my kids started when they were toddlers (18mos-2 yrs). I didn’t expect much, just enough for them not to be terrified of water and get to the surface if they ever fell in.
Comment by SoMo — June 2, 2009 @ 8:37 am
My son has just started (quite late for our town, apparently), he will be 4 in August. My husband has taken him to the pool since he was 4 months old, and he was able to ’swim’ by himself confidently with arm-band flotation thingies by about 3yrs. It was still a big step for him to go to a formal lesson, as they use a back-flotation thingy and it is not so bouyant. He was not mentally ready until just now, in terms of paying attention and being confident enough to ‘let go’ of his bouyancy aid.
My daughter is so skinny that we have only just started her swimming, aged 22 months. She gets cold after 2 minutes, and doesn’t enjoy it. We take her anyway – she used to scream for the whole session (15min), but now just clings on like a limpet. I wish we had started her earlier, but our pool as a one adult-one child rule, so we can only take them when we are both around. She will start lessons as soon as I can get her in, they don’t start til age 3. She is a lot more confident generally, and therefore will start formal lessons earlier than my son.
We are lucky that although we live in a small town (6000 people), we do have a public (albeit pricey) pool that started kids’ lessons 6 months ago. It is extremely cold, though, so we don’t use it as often as we should.
I should add that I learnt to swim when I was about 18months, as we lived in the tropics and had a pool in the garden. I swam every day til I was 5. I then went back to the UK, where they don’t teach swimming at school til age 7/8, and my mum couldn’t afford private lessons. When I started school swimming at age 7, I had to totally re-learn how to swim, as I had forgotten even after 2 years. So, whatever you decide, just make sure you keep going with the lessons/practice on a regular basis.
Comment by Jen — June 2, 2009 @ 5:17 pm