Goldfish worked out well for our kid. I'm not a good swimmer (I am a safe swimmer but not a good swimmer and can't do any stroke technically correct) and my husband gets frustrated easily so we were not well equipped to teach.

Kid is now a better swimmer than I am and does swim team. Also, importantly, she loves swimming and has really strong foundational technique, according to her swim coaches.

We didn't find it to be more expensive than other options. She was able to progress through all the levels during two four-month stings in consecutive years. We did a "jumpstart clinic" to start and I think that helped a lot, I recommend clustering classes if you can.

We joined a private community pool and they had instructors there that we could contact for sign ups. The pool staff all had good recs for specific instructors for age of child.

Anonymous wrote:Goldfish was useless for our child over the course of 4 months (weekly lessons). We ended up putting him in 4x/week 30 min private lessons in the summer and he learned to swim in 1 week.

Any suggestions of where to get the private lessons? We go to the Goldfish in Alexandria and not a ton of progress after almost a year.

Yes it’s worth it. 2 out of 3 of my kids did it and it was good for them.

Building a swimmer takes effort - be it going to the pool regularly with your child or investing in lessons.

However you choose to do it is up to you and your budget.

But good for everyone who makes the time and investment to teach their kids this important life saving skill - no matter how they do it.

Goldfish was useless for our child over the course of 4 months (weekly lessons). We ended up putting him in 4x/week 30 min private lessons in the summer and he learned to swim in 1 week.

Yes it is worth it. Weekly lesson and consistency is key. The warm water and hot air temperature allow kids to focus. Small classss are a help too. It worked for my two kids, they loved going there too! We tried other places, like YMCA and rec center but it was hard to get it, it is session based, and we did not get the same results.

For sure worth it. Our kids learned at Goldfish when they were having trouble learning at the rec center. The small classes and weekly lessons made all the difference. Warm water and air temp makes it easy for kids to be happy. Staff was always friendly.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is ridiculously easy to teach kids to swim as long as you are consistent and frequently go to pool. Parents are just too lazy to get in the water

Maybe your kids, not all kids. Stop generalizing a-hole.

Well, it’s true. Goldfish swim is for parents that are too lazy to get into the pool regularly with their child and actually take an initiative to teach them.

I realize an old post has been bumped but my experience is that 1) you won’t get anywhere with goldfish if you don’t ALSO take them to the pool regularly; 2) many children are unwilling to learn from their parents. I actually know several people with swim teaching experience who can’t teach (some of) their own children.

We did lessons (largely at Goldfish) with all our kids but we also spent a lot of the time in the pool with them and working on skills with them.

This. Most kids need regular exposure to the water to become comfortable in the water and learn how to swim. My kids all had lessons and then we also swam outside of class. My niece has had swim lessons for the past three years and still can’t swim independently at 6, so for some kids swim lessons are really not enough to build proficiency - especially if they are off and on. Most parents are not swim instructors and don’t want to spend the little time that they have with their kids in the pool drilling one child on swimming and water safety nor do they want pool time to be synonymous with learning new swim techniques (not all children are open to learning from their parents and not all parents know to teach swimming).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is ridiculously easy to teach kids to swim as long as you are consistent and frequently go to pool. Parents are just too lazy to get in the water

Maybe your kids, not all kids. Stop generalizing a-hole.

Well, it’s true. Goldfish swim is for parents that are too lazy to get into the pool regularly with their child and actually take an initiative to teach them.

I realize an old post has been bumped but my experience is that 1) you won’t get anywhere with goldfish if you don’t ALSO take them to the pool regularly; 2) many children are unwilling to learn from their parents. I actually know several people with swim teaching experience who can’t teach (some of) their own children.

We did lessons (largely at Goldfish) with all our kids but we also spent a lot of the time in the pool with them and working on skills with them.

Anonymous wrote:No. Teaching kids to swim isn’t rocket science. It is pretty easy and basic. I taught all my kids to swim by age 3 but just taking them to open swim frequently. By swimming, I mean they could swim across the pool, swim under water, tread water, and are super comfortable in the water without floatations. Then I enrolled them in local YMCA lessons to learn proper strokes. Goldfish swim is a just a highly commercialized “boutique” swim environment for UMC.

+1 This.