Most rec centers have lap lane indoor pools….not necessarily a good place to swim with a family.

Pp join the rec center they have a pool. Come on you can’t be this dense

How do you teach your kids without access to a pool? Our HOA doesn’t have a pool, there are no neighborhood pools here (all HOA driven). We did goldfish but the 30min once a week was doing nothing. Short of putting in a pool ($150k), what can we do?

Anonymous wrote:Forget swim lessons and join summer swim team at age 5 or 6. It is a lot cheaper and your child will learn all four strokes in one summer and it is a ton of fun for kids.

At our pool they have to be a certain level for preteam. Head underwater, swim a short distance. Etc . . .

Lesson once a week, and no-pressure pool time as many times as you can manage it. Ask them to show you what they're learning in their lesson, that way they will get a bit of practice.

Or you can really go for it with 2-3 lessons a week, but if your kid doesn't enjoy the lessons that will make life very unpleasant.

Thanks everyone. I would love for them to be swimming by the end of summer but will temper my expectations. Leaning towards twice a week for now since kiddo takes longer to warm up to new situations and isn’t the best at transitions.

Take them to the pool every other day. Females lessons a few times a week. We didn't start until 5 and then they learned basics in 2 weeks of daily lessons.

I think taking them to the pool frequently in addition to lessons also helps

Anonymous wrote:I think once a week is fine. It is an extremely rare three year old that is ready to swim in earnest. Next year, I would try doing it intensively with the goal of them actually learning to swim.

All of mine were swimming at 3. Long summer season where I live though.

Forget swim lessons and join summer swim team at age 5 or 6. It is a lot cheaper and your child will learn all four strokes in one summer and it is a ton of fun for kids.

Both of my kids started at 2 but really didn't pick up independent swimming until 4. I took my kids to Goldfish. For my second one, I wanted to get through the program more quickly because I did not want to spend 1.5-2 years getting her through the levels. She progressed fast once I started bringing her twice a week, and she finished the program in 6 months. I wouldn't bother with twice a week though until the child is swimming independently for short distances.

Anonymous wrote:I think once a week is fine. It is an extremely rare three year old that is ready to swim in earnest. Next year, I would try doing it intensively with the goal of them actually learning to swim.

Your expectations should really depend on the child and how much exposure they've had with swimming. As in, do they love the water or is the idea of submerging their head going to send them into hysterics?

We have a home pool and my child is the outlier in that he has been "swimming" multiple times a week since he was 4 months old and then at 10 months did an intensive 5x/week program for a month or so with some tapering and now attends private lessons on a weekly basis. I find that frequency of once a week is great at his age to learn new skills and then he swims in our pool at least 2 or more times a week because it's his happy place. Unless your child has significant delays, I would think learning to swim at this age is a non-issue. The only thing you have to be realistic about is their coordination. Figuring out how to coordinate his "big arms" with kicking his legs, and side breathing is where my DS is at and he's a fish.

I think once a week is fine. It is an extremely rare three year old that is ready to swim in earnest. Next year, I would try doing it intensively with the goal of them actually learning to swim.

2-3 times a week if you can swing it. At that age they forget things quickly.

I am looking to arrange private swim lessons for my 3 year old this summer at our pool. What frequency would you recommend? Any other tips to make this successful?