Reply to 7 year old can’t swim after lots of lessons

Forum Index » Elementary School-Aged Kids

Reply to "7 year old can’t swim after lots of lessons "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DD took lessons for years and still can't swim exactly but has gotten more comfortable in the water with a noodle. She's old enough that she knows how to be safe. She could probably swim if she really needed to. Eventually they get taller and more mature. It's other kids getting in their way I worry more about.[/quote]

We poured a ton of money in private (one-on-one) swim lessons for one of our kids. Nothing worked because the approach was 100% wrong for that child. I used to be impressed with the approach used at all the local swim centers, but this blind following of lessons with “safety first” where they force kids to master various aspects of being in water is not one-size-fits-all. If it works for your child - wonderful (it worked for one of our kids). But, there is nothing safe or caring with letting kids struggle and start hating water because instructors keep insisting that learning how to swim has to follow specific order. I wish I listened to my instincts on this way earlier.

My swimming-resistant kid just needed some very closely supervised independent time in water. He needed to do things his way in a calm, unforced environment. He still doesn’t like swim lessons because of the pushy attitude of most of instructors, but he can safely jump intro water, resurface, float and swim (still not where I would like him to be, but much better than being horrified of swimming pools and not wanting to be anywhere near pools, which was the case while we kept insisting on swimming lessons).

So, if you can, try giving a no-pressure opportunity of having fun in the water and see if it helps. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics