At what age could your child swim?

[Anonymous]

My super athletically determined one -3.5 after seeing his friend could do it. He’d had on and off exposure plus about 6 months of weekly lessons.
4.5yo youngest - not there yet. It’s going to eventually take a lot more repetition with her.

[Anonymous]

My oldest took private swim lessons for 6 months out of the year for a couple of years in a row, and could swim at 4, then passed the swim test to go off the diving board at 4.5. Now he's 5 and we're doing group lessons.

Don't know for DC2 yet, he is 3 and just started group lessons.

[Anonymous]

4. Figured it out on a family holiday in early spring where she got actual pool time for the first time since the previous summer. In between she'd had Swim America style lessons (non-private, but small groups by ability) for 30 minutes once a week and seemed to be picking up skills/learned to float... but on this trip she just suddenly got it and went from "swimming" (jump into pool, get back to side) to being able to swim the length of a pool. It was amazing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By 3 our girls could go off the diving board, go under from the jump, and swim to the side of the diving well. I'd find a better teacher or program.

NP. This is unusually young. I taught swim lessons for ten years to ages 2-10 and only ever had a handful of kids who could do that before the age of 3.

It is definitely unusually young but I taught one of my babies to swim underwater when she was between 6 and 9 months. She could climb up to the diving board by 2 and jump in the deep end, swim to the ladder and climb out. By the time a child is 2 or 3 they become more fearful and somewhat headstrong and it is harder to teach them than when they are still nonverbal infants. Seems like most parents are too cautious themselves to do what I did but I had read a book with a specific technique and it worked well with my child.

You really waited that long to teach your kids to swim? We definitely had ours swimming underwater by 3 months old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By 3 our girls could go off the diving board, go under from the jump, and swim to the side of the diving well. I'd find a better teacher or program.

NP. This is unusually young. I taught swim lessons for ten years to ages 2-10 and only ever had a handful of kids who could do that before the age of 3.

It is definitely unusually young but I taught one of my babies to swim underwater when she was between 6 and 9 months. She could climb up to the diving board by 2 and jump in the deep end, swim to the ladder and climb out. By the time a child is 2 or 3 they become more fearful and somewhat headstrong and it is harder to teach them than when they are still nonverbal infants. Seems like most parents are too cautious themselves to do what I did but I had read a book with a specific technique and it worked well with my child.

ISR teaches babies to swim. We took this route, but kids were 3. So worth the splurge, like fishes, they love the water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:By 3 our girls could go off the diving board, go under from the jump, and swim to the side of the diving well. I'd find a better teacher or program.

NP. This is unusually young. I taught swim lessons for ten years to ages 2-10 and only ever had a handful of kids who could do that before the age of 3.

It is definitely unusually young but I taught one of my babies to swim underwater when she was between 6 and 9 months. She could climb up to the diving board by 2 and jump in the deep end, swim to the ladder and climb out. By the time a child is 2 or 3 they become more fearful and somewhat headstrong and it is harder to teach them than when they are still nonverbal infants. Seems like most parents are too cautious themselves to do what I did but I had read a book with a specific technique and it worked well with my child.

To do this you really need to have a pool in your backyard and get in EVERY day. You can't teach an infant the water skills by going to the pool 1 or 2 times a month, which is what most of us have time in our schedule to do. If I had a pool in my backyard, I'd also be motivated to do this because it's so dangerous. For the vast majority of kids, they can learn sometime between 3-7, depending on how fearful they are. Yes some kids are incredibly fearful, and they may learn later. But since we don't live in an area where everyone has backyard pools it's not quite the same risk as other parts of the country.

[Anonymous]

I don't think formal lessons are very useful before 3. As long as they are getting exposed to the water through you before then, that is all they need.

We did baby/toddler classes with my first and I stopped around 2 and started again around 3.5 when lessons turned more formal and were without parent. Around d 4-4.5, they were swimming short distances independently. Around 6 they were on jr swim teams. This is with group lessons once per week and us taking them to open swim once per week.

[Anonymous]

6-7 for my older two, who suffered through years of group swim lessons at the Y.

Under 4 for my youngest, when we wised up and started with a private teacher. Wish I could have turned back the clock with my older two and gone private. The difference is amazing--with swimming, such small adjustments can make a huge difference in how efficient a stroke is.

[Anonymous]

3-4

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:6-7 for my older two, who suffered through years of group swim lessons at the Y.

Under 4 for my youngest, when we wised up and started with a private teacher. Wish I could have turned back the clock with my older two and gone private. The difference is amazing--with swimming, such small adjustments can make a huge difference in how efficient a stroke is.

Can you explain more why the private lessons made a huge difference? Some of these group lessons are not that crowded. Right now, my 4 year old is in a group lesson with 3 others. Sorry, I have been wondering if we should go private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:6-7 for my older two, who suffered through years of group swim lessons at the Y.

Under 4 for my youngest, when we wised up and started with a private teacher. Wish I could have turned back the clock with my older two and gone private. The difference is amazing--with swimming, such small adjustments can make a huge difference in how efficient a stroke is.

Can you explain more why the private lessons made a huge difference? Some of these group lessons are not that crowded. Right now, my 4 year old is in a group lesson with 3 others. Sorry, I have been wondering if we should go private.

DP. For some kids, private lessons are better because the instructor can focus on the child and the child can have one-on-one attention and learn a lot in a short period of time. Other kids learn better by being in a group and following along. Private swim lessons can be very beneficial but not all kids are able to benefit from them if they do better in a group lesson. And kids can certainly learn a lot in a group lessons or a session of group lessons.

[Anonymous]

Yes, my 3/4yo just got distracted in group lessons. Did much better in private and semi-private lessons at that age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oldest swam at 6. It's a body composition thing. Some kids just sink so need stronger swimming skills to get them.from A to B. My young guy is a chunk at 2 and can swim short distances already. It helps he doesn't sink like a stone.

So thinner kids are more likely to sink? that explains why my skinny daughters took so long to learn!

[Anonymous]

Mine could swim well between 3 or 4 years.