Anonymous wrote:My kids only do 8 lessons a year (m-th 2 week session with the city every summer, taught by teens not fancy at all). I would say they learned to swim mostly from me though. The lessons help them learn the strokes, but I have also tried to supplement teaching the strokes.

I think the key is that we have an apartment pool. Dads apartment has a pool, and both sets of grandparents have a pool. Tropical climate (CA). Definitely utalize any time you have with pools! Bring snacks so you can stay longer etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Three kids, many summers of lessons and they still can't swim. There are many reasons for this but partly I think we haven't been pushing it enough. We also don't live in a place with nice weather or many pools so there's just not really a summer swim culture here. They need to learn for safety reasons.

We're going to be by a pool for a week next week and I'm wondering how far I can get them on my own. My dad taught me how to swim and I was good enough to be on the swim team.

If you've bypassed the lessons or rec center thing and taught them on their own, how did you do it?

You do have to reinforce skills but lots of exposure to swimming (ocean/lake/pool) can help a lot too when it comes to confidence. It is also somewhat personality driven: children who are more open to new experiences are going to take to swimming more quickly (or that’s my observation with my three kids). Lastly, kids with lower tone and less athletic ability (kids who for example, walked on the later side of normal and achieve physical athletic milestones, like riding a bike or doing monkey bars later) will need to work harder or will take longer to get to the same place as more athletic peers.

I wouldn’t make it your goal to get all kids comfortably swimming on your own in a week’s time. You’ll make yourself and your kids miserable and you want to do everything as safely as possible.

Regarding the tone thing, I agree with one caveat: super lean people with abnormally low body fat often have trouble swimming because they sink more easily.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Three kids, many summers of lessons and they still can't swim. There are many reasons for this but partly I think we haven't been pushing it enough. We also don't live in a place with nice weather or many pools so there's just not really a summer swim culture here. They need to learn for safety reasons.

We're going to be by a pool for a week next week and I'm wondering how far I can get them on my own. My dad taught me how to swim and I was good enough to be on the swim team.

If you've bypassed the lessons or rec center thing and taught them on their own, how did you do it?

You do have to reinforce skills but lots of exposure to swimming (ocean/lake/pool) can help a lot too when it comes to confidence. It is also somewhat personality driven: children who are more open to new experiences are going to take to swimming more quickly (or that’s my observation with my three kids). Lastly, kids with lower tone and less athletic ability (kids who for example, walked on the later side of normal and achieve physical athletic milestones, like riding a bike or doing monkey bars later) will need to work harder or will take longer to get to the same place as more athletic peers.

I wouldn’t make it your goal to get all kids comfortably swimming on your own in a week’s time. You’ll make yourself and your kids miserable and you want to do everything as safely as possible.

Anonymous wrote:Three kids, many summers of lessons and they still can't swim. There are many reasons for this but partly I think we haven't been pushing it enough. We also don't live in a place with nice weather or many pools so there's just not really a summer swim culture here. They need to learn for safety reasons.

We're going to be by a pool for a week next week and I'm wondering how far I can get them on my own. My dad taught me how to swim and I was good enough to be on the swim team.

If you've bypassed the lessons or rec center thing and taught them on their own, how did you do it?

Anonymous wrote:I used to be a swim instructor and life guard. It was when I was in college, and I taught my own DD to swim. I worked with her 1 one 1 a lot, and it took 2 summers of dedicated effort. We were in the pool several times a week working one on one.

Start out with the basics - putting face in, blowing bubbles, full submersion, floating on back, floating on tummy, swimming to the bottom to get rings in very shallow water, glides, bobs, straight leg kicking on back and tummmy, frog kick, kicks with a board, dog paddle, and then progress from there. I liked to refer to the Red Cross swimming levels and skills to keep me on track for what to work on. My DD was 5 and 6 when she learned, but she didnt really get motivated to learn until she couldn’t swim with friends in the deep end and felt embarrassed having to wear a puddle jumper.

Anonymous wrote:Goggles help. Especially the ones that cover the nose as well.

Anonymous wrote:People have been swimming for millennia - before swimming lessons existed. They learned from family members and from frequent practice.

Anonymous wrote:The fastest way is probably to take lessons once a week or so and then practice whatever you learned daily with them on your own. You need the repetition.