When BeBe turned three years-old, we phased out of the parent-and-me swim lessons. She loves the water, and I was eager to enroll her in more swim lessons after such a positive experience. We also have family with a pool, and I wanted her to be safe in the water. We enrolled her in the 4-year-old group swim lessons with an instructor and no parents in the water. After the first class, it was evident the group swim lessons were not working well for her.
The group swim lesson has a ratio of 1:6, and lasts for an hour in the pool. The instructor takes turns pulling each kiddo off the side of the pool for instruction while the other kids wait their turn. On a good day, with all the kids eager to swim and not misbehaving, BeBe would get about 15 minutes of instruction.
The problems first started when she didn’t want to hold on to the side of the pool with both hands to wait her turn. This rule is for safety, but she wanted to bob in and out of the water. Then she started splashing with the kids next to her. All of this misbehavior led to many whistle blows from the lifeguard.
The problems continued when she began to notice the other kids’ fear of the water, and she became apprehensive about the water too. In just two weeks’ time, my water loving kiddo, started to fear the pool and hate swim lessons. By the second week, I realized I was paying money for swim lessons she didn’t enjoy and dreaded taking her to.
We had her drop out of group swim lessons, and decided to pay a little more money for individual lessons the next session. This made a tremendous difference. After one lesson, she was confident in the water, focused on learning, and having fun doing cannonballs at the end of class. We had a series of different teachers last summer, with vastly different styles, but she thrived with each instructor. At the end of last summer, she was able to swim, without her floatie, across the pool.
This summer we decided to bypass group lessons entirely, and enroll her in individual swim lessons. I was curious how she would do after the winter break from swimming, but she loves it and is swimming without her floatie again. While she thrives in a group setting for other activities and preschool, group swim lessons just didn’t work well for her.
Our little guy doesn’t seem to love the water yet, I’m hoping this changes over the summer. However, it’s clear he benefits from watching the other kids in the pool. It distracts him, and encourages him to get in the water. We have at least a year and half until he can enroll in swim lessons on his own, but he may be a kiddo that benefits from group lessons.
What type of swimming lessons did you enroll your kiddo in? Did you have a positive experience?
apricot / 317 posts
We did individual lessons for DS1, and they worked really well. We opted against classes because we worried about him doing some of the same things u mention! Now that he can swim decently, we will look for group lessons for kids who are intermediate…I think he’ll do fine in that group. For DD1, we will do group lessons because she benefits from watching and will need the frequent breaks of group lessons.
cherry / 235 posts
When DS1 was small we did the parent/child classes, but stopped at the age of 3 when he phased out of those. He’s 5.5 now and is just finishing up his first 8 week session in semi-private lessons (there are 3 children in each class) and he is thriving! 8 weeks ago he was clingy in the water and would barely put his face under. Now he is jumping in and swimming 20’+ at a time. I think the small class size is definitely key to him learning so quickly.
DS2 (he’s 2) is also enrolled in his first session with the same instructor, same class size, no parent in the water, and the goal of his class is to get comfortable with the water and be able to go under. So far he’s doing great.
I’m definitely now an advocate for small class size/private lessons for swimming.
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
We have done individual with the same instructor for 3 years now. We started with mommy and me, then last year she started with the instructor alone and this year she is finally coming out of her shell and having a great time learning with the instructor. She knows her and we talk about her and that makes it easier. I only have one kid so I don’t mind paying the large amount for solo lessons. If we had two or more? I’d rethink that!!
cherry / 108 posts
It’s so funny you posted this because my daughter is about to soon start private lessons. She is going to be 3 in July and goes to daycare, but her younger sister is 6 months and stays home with a nanny. The nanny is also a certified swim instructor that has been teaching little ones for years! So we are going to try that. She doesn’t even like her face getting wet during baths
She can also tend to get overwhelmed with new things at first so I feel like these private lessons will be better for her. Hope it goes well! I think it all just depends on your kid’s personality.
pear / 1961 posts
DD1 made the biggest gains when we put her in accelerated lessons. So instead of going 1/wk for 8 weeks, she is going everyday for a week. Her class is technically a group class, but has 4 kids and 2 teachers, so they get a lot of attention and time to swim in their 40m class.