Can your five year old swim?
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Anonymous
| When DS was five had had taken rec center group lessons three times and could maybe dog paddle five feet. Now he's six. I wanted him ready for the summer (I have two younger kids. I won't go to the pool with three non swimmers) so we started private lessons in April. He had eight in two weeks and then once a week since then. It has taken longer than I thought but now he can jump off the diving board and float on his back, can do the length of the pool with flippers on and can do the width of it no problem on his back or front unassisted. We have a way to go but I'm much more comfortable with his abilities. I think his level at age five was pretty typical. |
Anonymous
| My 8 year old can doggy paddle across the pool but will not dunk her head. Not quite sure how to get there but our goal is for her to be able to him in the deep end, swim to surface and get to the side; until then, she's not truly safe in the water. |
Anonymous
^^ jump in deep end |
Anonymous
Yes, I would say that most five-year-olds can swim well enough to cross a pool. |
Anonymous
| I'm 32 and I can't swim, and I have managed just fine in life. I enjoy going to the beach and pool but to just laze about in the water. I didn't realize kids were expected to be competent swimmers! |
Anonymous
Welcome to DCUM! Have your kids had swim lessons yet? |
Anonymous
| No, but DS is only 18 months old. I come from a different culture that doesn't emphasize swimming as much. I'm curious to learn why you all feel it is so important. Any responses would be helpful! |
Anonymous
It is a life skill/survival skill that I think everyone should know, unless you really never plan on begin near water, which I can't imagine ever being the case. Now obviously there are parts of the country where it may not matter so much, but in the DC area where there are a lot of pools and many families belong to pools, I think it is very important for kids to know how to swim. They don't need to be on the swim team and swimming laps, but they should be able to navigate in the water and safely get to the edge of the pool. |
Anonymous
| That's helpful, thanks. I guess my thinking is that in a pool setting there are others nearby who can help me/DC get to the edge. In an ocean you're probably dead anyway and all the swim lessons in the world are unlikely to help you truly survive. But yeah, it is a life skill that I will I had but the lack of it has not impacted my life in any meaningful way. |
Anonymous
Drowning is one of the leading causes of death for children. |
Anonymous
+1 It's more important where people spend a lot of time near water and might play there or just fall in. Around here, I suppose it *could* be viewed as optional, but the summers are HOT and a lot of kid socializing happens around pools - public and private. Realistically, there's enough water around here and close by that everyone is going to be near water from time to time unless you actively avoid it. I grew up on a river down south (like, we could jump in the water in the backyard), and my parents had my siblings and I in the water near daily in the summer from the time we were 6 months old or so. My eldest sister was the really fearful sort but they wore her down with lots of fun play in the water and by 5 or 6 we were all decent swimmers. At the very least, I need my kids to be safe for pool parties by the time they're 6 or so. And for visiting grandparents! Living in the district, I don't have a river in the backyard for daily ducking, but I make sure the 2yo gets to the neighborhood pool in the summer once/week or so. I'll probably do some lessons for her this fall when the pools close in the fall. I'm hoping she'll be at least doggy paddling by next summer. DH is a terrible swimmer; so he is mostly in charge of playing with the baby in the shallow end while 2yo and I play (and practice kicking). I've been trying to talk DH into some private lessons for himself! It makes me nervous that he can't properly swim, because I'm a tolerably decent swimmer but I don't know that I want to play lifeguard for him and the kids! |
Anonymous
| PP who doesn't know how to swim and who said she assumes someone can help her or a child if they fall in: google "what drowning looks like." There is a video they use to teach lifeguards. It isn't to scare you, the point is that it is really hard to tell if someone is in trouble in the water. They don't flail, don't yell, don't call for help. It is quiet, quick, and close to the surface. So if you and your children don't know how to swim enough to get to the edge of the pool, or back to the boat, or to the ladder by the pier...you really need to stay far enough away from pools/boats/piers that you can't fall off. |
Anonymous
It's not that they WON'T call for help. It is physically impossible to do so if you actually are drowning. Drowning is utterly, entirely silent. You don't flail, splash, or scream. |
Anonymous
We're from Florida, where there is literally water everywhere, from backyard pools to the ocean and gulf to canals used to hold all the water in the rainy, swampy Sunshine State. In fact, drowning is the leading cause of death of children under 5 many years, surpassing even auto accidents. We lived in Florida until my son was 3.5 years old. He started swimming lessons at about 13 months old in group lessons, and we switched to individual lessons by 2. He hated the first individual lessons, without me in the water, and screamed and cried for about the first 5 sessions. After that though, he learned to really work with the instructor. He was able to put his face in the water, monkeywalk to the steps, and they practiced jumping in and then turning and grabbing the wall of the pool and pulling himself out over and over and over and over and over. He also worked on swimming a few feet at that age. I had thought about stopping during those first miserable private lessons; but redoubled my efforts when my son's playmate drowned a few doors down from us at age 3. When my son was 2.10 years old, we went to Mexico and were at a resort pool. I turned to head to the bathroom after telling my husband to watch our son. As I was walking away, I heard a commotion behind me. My son had run after me, slipped and fallen into the pool. The adults sitting around the pool started to jump up, but my son immediately popped up out of the water, spun around, grabbed the edge of the pool and pulled himself out. The lessons worked exactly like they were supposed to -- my son didn't panic largely because he didn't have to think. He just did what he had practiced so many times before. By age 5, he could easily make it across a residential swimming pool, swimming mostly underwater though, not any kind of true stroke. At age 12, he passed the BSA Swim Test. He's now almost finished up with his Boy Scout Swimming Merit Badge. Beyond the swim lessons, we spent hours and hours in the pools just having fun, and having him get used to moving in the water and feeling his body in the water. Time in the pool makes a lot of difference. |
Anonymous
| My 7 year old just got it. He's been taking lessons for a few years, and we have a pool and he's had no problem with jumping in and playing. But actually making it the length of the pool? This year. And it's close. |