Anyone teach their kids to swim all on their own?

[Anonymous]

Three kids, many summers of lessons and they still can't swim. There are many reasons for this but partly I think we haven't been pushing it enough. We also don't live in a place with nice weather or many pools so there's just not really a summer swim culture here. They need to learn for safety reasons.

We're going to be by a pool for a week next week and I'm wondering how far I can get them on my own. My dad taught me how to swim and I was good enough to be on the swim team.

If you've bypassed the lessons or rec center thing and taught them on their own, how did you do it?

[Anonymous]

Honestly, it took a while! Probably until age 8 or so to be swimming fully independently in the deep end for my oldest. My youngest is 5 and I hope it will be a little sooner but he's definitely not there yet. Just try to take them swimming a lot and encourage them to try challenging themselves. They'll want to learn to keep up with other kids.

[Anonymous]

I highly recommend following the progression in these videos. I’ve taught kids by showing them each video then going to the pool and practicing each skill.

[Anonymous]

You didn't mention how old your kids are. From my experience and observation, if you want to teach them yourself it is easier to wait until they are a little older. But in the meantime it is important to have them be comfortable in the shallow pool. If you want to, just focus on floating on their back when young.

[Anonymous]

i am teaching my grandson. he is 2. he can swim to a person 15 feet away, or as long as he can hold his breath. he can get out of the pool at the edge by himself. he can crawl along the wall with his hands to go allthe way around the pool if he lets go of the wall, he can swim back to the wall. he can retrieve toys from the bottom.

he swims like a disabled shrimp so far, but he can get around.

what it takes is practice, practice, practice. even just 20 minutes a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You didn't mention how old your kids are. From my experience and observation, if you want to teach them yourself it is easier to wait until they are a little older. But in the meantime it is important to have them be comfortable in the shallow pool. If you want to, just focus on floating on their back when young.

Disagree. I think it’s harder when they older because they tend to be more afraid.

[Anonymous]

I taught my kids. My oldest taught his little cousins. But we started early. Mine were like the shrimp kid above.

We did use swim team to teach them the strokes. They all started at 5, legal in 2 strokes and swim team taught them the other two.

[Anonymous]

I want claim full responsibility for teaching my kids to swim but I definitely contributed and all three were able to swim the length of pool by 4. I think the key is frequent exposure to swimming. You need to be in the pool with them twice per week. We took our kids to open swim weekly starting when they were babies, more often in summer with outdoor pools and lakes.

At 3 we signed them up for weekly group lessons then we go to open swim in addition another day of the week and just play around and reinforce some of the things they were learning and using some of the techniques the instructors would use. You just have to be consistent with getting them in the water frequently and they will learn quickly.

[Anonymous]

Well this is one of the dimmer things on DCUM

No OP you do not teach them if you are not certified

You can not watch all three at once and teach them

Swimming takes more than a week

[Anonymous]

We taught our kids. Both learned between 2.5 and 3 yo. With the first, our apartment had a pool, so we could take him swimming nearly every day. We had moved by kid 2, and she learned during a week on a vacation with a pool. Swim team taught them proper strokes a few years later.

The key was lots and lots of exposure to water. Every day as much as possible, even if only for a week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well this is one of the dimmer things on DCUM

No OP you do not teach them if you are not certified

You can not watch all three at once and teach them

Swimming takes more than a week

What? No, you don’t need to be “certified” to teach a young child how to swim. This is a basic skill. Sure, send them to an instructor to learn a proper butterfly, but any parent that can swim can teach a child to float, tread water, and swim a length of the pool

[Anonymous]

I took kids to lessons when they were very young (2 or 3).

To me , the lesson progression and activities seemed counter intuitive but it worked great with the kids. So kids learned to blow bubbles, and other exercises, and then, they first seemed to swim under water with different games like picking up rings learning to blow bubbles and not be afraid when they do that, and when they got really good swimming under water they seemed to progress to swim like adults do. So, it depends how old and what progression your kids are at, and if you actually know how to teach small kids how to swim.

[Anonymous]

Of course. We taught them first and their school does swim lessons too.

[Anonymous]

I never put a floaty on my kids. I was always in the water an arm length away. We did lots of diving toys to practice going under. It was definitely easier for me because my kids are 5 years apart and we went to the pool everyday. For your kids, I’d try to make it as much like play as possible and not feel like lessons.

[Anonymous]

Mine learned to be on his back and float when he got tired. Most kid learn on their own. Time is the pool is important.