[Butterfly*77]

DS does a class once per week and in Term 4, he will also do a class at school. We will continue him with classes until he reaches the top level and moves into a squad. Our centre is anti-floaties except for stroke correction so he never swims with any flotation device except for toys or noodles.

We have family and friends with pools so we would prefer DS to be confident long term so do not plan to take him out anytime soon.

[beansidhe]

Personally I think swimming lessons are a waste of money.
Swimming is something a parent can teach.
In my case my brothers taught me. They pushed me into the deep end and told me to swim. Fortunately I could already float and keep my head above water. After that I was confident I could swim and that was the end of my simming 'lessons'

My mother was terrified of water and never learnt to swim.
My girls are all good swimmers now. Though one of them was terrified of the water too. It took YEARS of encouragement to get her to put her head under water and trust herself to float. Now she is a confident and capable swimmer.

To the people who said they found it weird that a 5 year old wear floaties. Ever stop to think about some severe water phobias going on in the child?

Will any of them ever be olympic athletes?
Nope

Can they swim all the strokes?
Yes

Will they be able to save their lives?
Yes!

All taught without paying for one swimming lesson.

This post has been edited by beansidhe: 01/04/2012, 08:11 PM

[KristyMum-]

My thinking is when they can fall or be pushed into a body of water without freaking out, and get to the edge/keep themselves safe/float/whatever until they're 'rescued' and/or competent in the sea/able to recognise hazards in the water etc.

That's when I'll say 'yep, we can stop with the lessons now', as in paid lessons, and just keep on with life lessons and experience/practice that way.

DH and I love the beach/water and the kids do too so I don't need a 'what if' because it's not that far away - we're already around water a lot. Even if they didn't there's still school camps etc and I just like them to be prepared and able to manage if they needed to be. Whether 'lessons' as such get them there depends on the teacher, what they're taught and how well they learn etc but I do know that me one on one with them in the pool isn't going to happen often enough at this stage, so lessons it is for now. We went a long time with no lessons though, for a few reasons.

DD1 is aiming for her bronze medallion not too far away.
The boys don't have to do that if they don't want to, but I do want them to be as competent as possible.

This post has been edited by KristyMum-: 24/04/2012, 02:35 AM

[sophiasmum]

My kids only do swimming lessons in the warmer months, from the start of term 4 to the end of term 1. They have just finished, DD was nearly ready for squad, DS was just getting freestyle. They will do it again later this year, I think they just get better & better & do more complicated things. But it depends if you think it's important or not.

[SarDonik]

It's our obligation to ensure our kids are decent swimmers, it's a skill that may save their life one day. e.g getting caught in a rip and having the ability to get out of it. A lot of Australians drown every year and 9/10 it boils down to poor swimming ability. Getting your child to the point they can doggie paddle 5m to the side of the pool isn't teaching them to swim and probably isn't going to help them much if they do get in trouble.

This post has been edited by SarDonik: 24/04/2012, 11:23 AM

[unicycle]

Another family that has swimmers who learnt without swim lessons ( some remedial ones were required when school lessons from an uninterested coach resulted in strokemtechnique issues I could not correct grrr) but I did take them regularly to the pool. Call it an unschooling approach to learn to swim. Lots of games I made up, with a view that the game was leading towards a new skill.