My DS is 3, we haven't really been around water much. But the couple of times we have he screams and wont get in the pool/beach.

Most of my frind's kids started swimming lessons b/w 6months & 12months, but we didn't do that. Now I'm worried that I've left it too late to start lessons.

Has anyone had this problem?

We'd love to get him into lessons this term, but DH thinks it will be a waste of money at first 'cos he carry on. He thinks we should take him to the pools ourselves and spend some time playing first in the wadding pool. Then maybe after a month or 2 of this try lessons. I'm not sure if it's better to get a stranger to familiarise him to the water rather than us (DS is very stubborn with us).

What do people think?

My DS is 3, he hated having his hair washed in the bath as he didn't like the water on his face. He had never been to swimming lessons.

3 weeks ago he went to his first lesson. He put on the floaties and jumped into the pool. He put his face under the water and had a great time.

It would seem that the peer environment of the other children in class, and all of the other kids around at lessons helps.

In addition - most centres will offer the first lesson for free for you to try. If you child does not like it and you don't want to continue, you have lost nothing except your time.

Good Luck

My girls have been swimming now for the last 2yrs. Hayley wasn't quiet 3 when we started her. We are using State Swim in SA. Hayley hated the idea at first as she went straight into Kindy class. She would screem and carry on. I spent the first 5-6 lessons out of view. She slowly got better to the stage I could sit and watch her. When Bethany went from Older Water Babies to Kindy I had no problems with her. I was told what Hayley was doing to start with was quiet normal and after watching others go up around her doing the same thing. The instructors are really good and are trained to handle this sort of thing well. The girls are currently doing a week of swim vac and there have been a couple of kids do the same thing this week and they are in Starter. I would put him in for a month or 2 to try him. If he plays up to much find a spot that he can't see you and let him cry if need be it's the only way they learn. At the girls centre the staff don't like you pulling out the child as this is "giving" in to the child and they don't learn that that's where they are ment to be.

Good luck with it all.

We had this exact problem. DS was almost three and we took him to swimming lessons. He screamed the entire time. The teacher was quite young and didn't have much patience and told us that "We aren't here to cure your childs fear of water". Well it wasn't a fear of water cause he had no problems with baths.

The next week we thought we would take him in the other shallow pool before the lesson to see how he went. He went fine, but outright refused to go in the big pool for his lessons. At this stage we were ready to pull him out.

DH went up to cancel that lesson and when the owner of the swim school heard that, she wanted to come down and see how he was doing in the pool.

SHe watched him for about 10minutes and told us that it wasn't a fear of water, he was just stubborn and head strong and had us wrapped around his finger. She moved him to another class with a more experienced teacher, who was also used to dealing with the screamers.

He screamed constantly for the first lesson, but every week he got less. 6 lessons later, last saturday he jumped straight in, saying "look mummy, I swimming."

So perservere with it. Speak to your swim school and tell them your concerns. It will be hard the first few weeks (we had to keep walking away from him, so he wouldn't scream for our benifit) but when he starts getting excited about swimming it will all be worth it.

Hope it helps.
Kaz

Hi, I had to wait until my twins (now 4.5yrs) were nearly 3 to have swimming lessons. One was fine but the other was a screamer.

Actually, she still is sometimes. We were actually thinking of pulling her out for a while if we couldn't get her to calm down a bit because she started getting upset even the night before her lesson. So, I spoke to the teacher and we are taking things very gently and not pushing her at all. Once she was assured that she wont be forced to do anything that made her scared she was happy and even smiled.

If I take her in the water myself she will scream and cling even worse than what she does with the swimming teacher. What I did was speak the the people in the office about her so that they could put her with the best teacher for her. Some children can do well with the tougher approach but others need a more gentle encouragement. It just depends on the child.

DD1 was a screamer too. She can swim now but still doesn't have the confidence to swim very far. But if you could have seen her when she first started you would see she has made alot of progress.

IMO the teacher they get put with can really make a huge difference. The evidence was the other week when DD3 who is NOT scared at all and will happily do huge bomb style jumps off the diving block all by herself. Her teacher was away sick and the replacement was a BOY . She took one look and ran away screaming! They found another teacher for her and she was happy with the girl. In her opinion swimming teachers need to be girls.

My DS2 was the same, we tried lessons when he was about 9 months but he hated them & performed all the time, so decided not to worry about them until he was older. He is now 3 & started this year and when we told him that he was going to learn to swim he did not want to go & even begged to go home when we got to the pool, I went in with him the first two lessons & after that he has been fine, he now loves going swimming.

Prior to this I had taken him to local pool & he was more happy to sit on the grass & hated going in the water, when I managed to get him he would cling to me the whole time.

He has only been going one term & is a different child, loves to play in the water & enjoys the classes.

Leanne

Thanks for sharing all your experiences, makes me feel a little better about giving it go.

Now to convince DH.

We went through the same thing with DD who's now nearly 3. She started lessons this year.

I took DD to lessons at 18 months but she was so hysterical that I pulled her out.

I think you're DH is right about getting him used to the water. I first started taking DD to the pools myself for a few weeks just to get her having fun in the water and also to get her used to wearing the back bubble and floaties on her arms. We would watch the other kids having lessons and talk about how fun that is etc etc

I then started lessons. Definately as PP have said tell the swim school your concerns. They will then put him in a class with a more experienced teacher.

At first DD cried and a few times she got out of the pool and ran off but I just got her and put her back in the water kicking and screaming. The teachers are all used to it so don't worry about it.

DD is now going really well and not crying (I bribed her with some pink googles and a cap, too) and I'm thrilled with her teacher and that I persevered with it.