Gymnastics or Swim for 3 year old

[Anonymous]

My 3 year old has low tone and is behind gross motor wise and gymnastics seems to be helping his confidence and his overall strength . He also is pretty scared of water though it's slowing improving with swim lessons. It's just getting too expensive to do both. Which one would you keep doing? His prefers gymnastics butl at the same time swimming is a life skill. He no longer cries at swim lessons but I wouldn't say he is a big fan either. Swim is slightly cheaper but around the same cost.

[Anonymous]

Swimming--it is a total body workout and easier on the joints. If he wants to go back to gymnastics when he is 5 or 6, great....otherwise, he might get the most benefit out of swimming.

[Anonymous]

Drop swimming and come back to it when he's 5 or 6. Gymnastics is excellent for a low tone child, if he'll do it (mine refused both).

[Anonymous]

I'm big on teaching kids to swim, but if it's not going well, I wouldn't push too much with a 3-year-old. Maybe keep up occasional relaxed opportunities to play in the water and try again later.

[Anonymous]

I dont know where you live but most county swim lessons don't start actual swim instruction until age 4. We started with kids first at 3.5
I would keep doing gymnastics and take him swimming yourself a couple of times a month.
Just make yourself schedule it in so you don't keep finding other things to do during that time. Even better if you can find a friend to go with.

[Anonymous]

Both, but at that age, I found gymnastics really helpful. I would not drop gymnastics. If you can afford to do both, do both. We did both at that age. The earlier you start swim, the easier it is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Drop swimming and come back to it when he's 5 or 6. Gymnastics is excellent for a low tone child, if he'll do it (mine refused both).

+1!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drop swimming and come back to it when he's 5 or 6. Gymnastics is excellent for a low tone child, if he'll do it (mine refused both).

+1!

-1, the older you wait to start swimming the harder it is. The older kids struggle much more. Gymnastics is great for 3 year olds and lots of fun. But, starting swim around or before 4 is best. Both are good in different ways. I would do each weekly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both, but at that age, I found gymnastics really helpful. I would not drop gymnastics. If you can afford to do both, do both. We did both at that age. The earlier you start swim, the easier it is.

+1 Gymnastics is a great foundation for just about anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Drop swimming and come back to it when he's 5 or 6. Gymnastics is excellent for a low tone child, if he'll do it (mine refused both).

Personally, I'd not wait until 5 or 6 to teach a kid to swim, especially if he has already shown fear of the water. That said, you can teach him to swim yourself. You can't supply all the gymnastics equipment yourself.

[Anonymous]

I think just exposing him to the pool without lessons will help him eventually get around by himself. If to keep one for the year, I would keep gymnastics. I think you move the body in a lot more different ways (at that age) in gymnastics -- climbing, jumping, rolling, hanging. They don't seem to be able to do much in the water at the early stages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drop swimming and come back to it when he's 5 or 6. Gymnastics is excellent for a low tone child, if he'll do it (mine refused both).

+1!

-1, the older you wait to start swimming the harder it is. The older kids struggle much more. Gymnastics is great for 3 year olds and lots of fun. But, starting swim around or before 4 is best. Both are good in different ways. I would do each weekly.

I disagree. If you have a kid who is terrified of the water, pushing it will not always help. I say go swimming for fun every few weeks for a year, no pressure, then pick up swim lessons. I know plenty of kids who picked up swimming really easily at 5-7 years old.

[Anonymous]

Are you trying to teach muscle coordination or build strength? My gut is once a week with either won't do much in terms of strength and muscle memory with swimming takes a while and then they just suddenly get it one day - I think I'd do gymnastics and join a county pool and just let him play in the water the other days? Mine are both swimming after weekly lessons by his age so he also might be just on the cusp of grasping it and more time in water with you might get him swimming a foot or two for fun at which point you could pick back up lessons? Tough decision though

[Anonymous]

At that age, and given that he doesn't like swimming, I'd stick with gymnastics. That is what we did with my 3 year old with low tone, and he made MASSIVE strides in the 4 years that he took gymnastics. I mean, totally different kid.

Now granted, he is now 8 and still can't "swim", although he has improved in his water safety. He is actually now ready and asking to learn how to swim, while before, every time we tried classes, it was a disaster.

[Anonymous]

Out of curiosity where are you taking swim.classes? In my experience gymnastics was much more expensive than swimming. County pool classes are very cheap.