Swimming lessons | pad patter 7.12.17

The grand kids are taking lessons now and are gaining skills, my daughters both took lesson and were on the local YMCA swim team back in Iowa. I took swim lessons and then was a lifeguard for years. Like you I could not afford to be on a swim team. I was amazed at how much better the grand kid's teachers were than I was back in the old days; they had great teaching techniques. I was impressed.

 

Sadly we've never had enough funds to get them lessons. And we don't go very often for them to "learn" on their own. Which is how I learned. Every summer I'd spend weeks with my nana and she'd take me swimming every day. I love the water and taught myself how to swim. I took a class I think in high school where we had to get graded and I passed. So I think I'm pretty good at swimming.

Eventually I'd like to get them lessons, or at least be able to visit the beach more so that I can teach them.

 

The kids started lessons in Jan at the local Y. I am SO GLAD we did lessons cuz they were not learning from us--like, we've been trying with DD for 2 years and was just not learning from us. Anyway, we took the summer off and I'm glad we did since DD broke her arm and wouldn't be going anyway.

As a child, I just learned how to swim. No lessons. I don't hate the water but I don't love swimming.

 

Unfortunately with my kids we could not afford lessons but we did have a pool (3 ft above ground) that both of my kids can swim but not as strong I would like. My son actually can swim better under the water than on top. My hubby still can't swim and water scares him. He has learned some basic that I think he could save himself but not anyone else.

I was thrown in a pond when I was younger (my uncles was behind me just in case I could not swim) so I can swim and can float better than I can swim so I am OK.

My daughter has done lessons for the last 3 years for her kids and they are pretty good swimmers.

 

None of my kids are natural swimmers - they all did lessons up until they were about 10. And their schools have at least one term per year of swimming/watersports activities which they all disliked but are all competent swimmers now.
I remember taking my youngest to a pool party when he wouldn't have been much over 7 and telling the Mum that he wasn't a strong swimmer. Have just found out recently that she bitched about me to all the other Mum's who dropped their kids off ("who would send a poor swimmer to a pool party?") My mistake for thinking a) the party was primarily to celebrate her son's birthday not a competitive swim off (my mistake!) and b) that supervising a bunch of 7 years old at a pool party would be a pain and not absolutely a priority? Oh, and she is a child psychologist - not remotely tempted to use her services...

My Mum and Godmother were both swimming teachers at my primary school, and two of the worst swimmers? Yep me and my god brother... We learnt in a lake where you couldn't see the bottom and occasionally have turtles pop their heads up, looking remarkably like snakes. fun times . I can swim ok but the ocean scares the bejeebers out of me..

 

I agree! Even if it's just to teach them how to float in case something happens.

My first had lessons, my middle learned at my MIL's and I really wish we could afford to take my youngest to lessons, but they're just so darn expensive. I could probably teach her on my own, but I don't like public pools and I don't have consistent access to a pool, so maybe next year?

 

My older son had lessons but he is so stubborn that the teacher (who saw him as a challenge, because she specializes in kids scared of water) had her work cut out for her. He swims so so now, not nearly as well as I would want him to, but you can't force kids. If he doesn't want to do something neither hell nor high water (no pun intended) will make him do it - on the other hand I am quite glad he is like that because he won't give in to peer pressure in other situations either.

My younger son is special needs and hopefully we can get him swimming lessons soon, but we cannot just register him in a regular class.
I love water but am no enthusiastic swimmer and no way can I teach any of my children.

They are complaining that less and less kids know how to swim over here, but somehow it seems the problem is not fixable.

I hear you. My son was invited to a birthday party at a pool and I was really worried. We went there beforehand, checked everything out and I told the mom about him not being a very good swimmer. It turned out all ok, they had tons of slides and the boys had fun. One of his friends even tried to teach him freestyle (no luck though).
That mother should be ashamed. And a child psychologist to boot? Right!

On a side note: I would NEVER have a birthday party with kids (especially if I don't know them) at a pool. The responsibility would kill me.

 

All three of my kids have been around water since they were tiny babies and I taught all of them how to swim myself. They are all like fish. We all love the pool. lake, and beach, and spend as much time there as possible. I love how much more relaxing it became once they all could swim

I never had lessons either...my parents taught me when we lived in an apt. complex with a pool when I was a little girl. I love being in the water and would spend the entire summer in the pool if I could. I trained to be a lifeguard in college, but never actually did it as a job.

 

My kids are both strong swimmers, and will be back in lessons in September. (They just aren't home very much in summer). My husband never had a day of lessons, but grew up with a backyard pool and he is a strong swimmer, and knows how to dive.

I never stuck with lessons, and am so underconfident in my swimming ability that until recently, I wouldn't take the kids on my own to a pool. My mom signed me up for lessons when I was 5. On about the third lesson, they had us jump off the diving board and an instructor was supposed to catch us at the bottom. I was already nervous, and pretty much blind without my glasses. Then, someone called out the instructor's name just as I jumped and she didn't catch me at the bottom. I still remember the sight and sound and panicked feeling of going below the surface when I didn't want to. I refused to go back in the water for the rest of that session. My mom forced me to try lessons again when I was 9, and that went OK until they tried to teach us how to jump in the water. I just picked up my stuff and walked home from the pool. I tried lessons as a teen and an adult, because I know I should be more comfortable around water. But, I still won't jump in, mostly because everything is blurry. (And, they don't make contacts for my prescription.)

 

My youngest daughter almost drowned on her 4th birthday. We were at my sister's house and she had an above ground pool. I was standing 2 feet away. Becky climbed up the ladder with her innertube. She must have slipped through. Her sister then at the top of the ladder yelled to me to come see Becky swimming without her innertube. Well, she wasn't exactly swimming, more like floating. We grabbed her out quickly and she coughed up a lot of water and was fine, luckily for us. That whole day is like a blur. I had to work that night and couldn't even talk, so I just ended up going home and holding her all night.

Shortly after that, both girls were enrolled in swimming lessons. Becky went from being deathly afraid of the water to putting her head under in 30 minutes. Both girls went on to become very good competitive swimmers until they graduated from high school. They both even coached the local summer team for several years and were lifeguards during high school. Their dad is still the coach of our high school team.

So you can guess that we are big proponents of swimming and learning how to swim in our family. All kids (and adults) should learn how not to drown. That day almost ruined our lives.

 

We live in AZ and have a pool so lessons were a necessity. I think both kids started at age 3. There are lots of options here so it isn't all that expensive and my kids -- now teens -- are good swimmers.

 

That's terrifying! I almost drowned when I was around the same age. We were camping at a lake and there was a building right at the edge of the water that had a swimming dock built in. They had called everyone out of the lake because of a snake, so I was standing on the dock. A boy who was developmentally delayed pushed me into the water -- I guess he didn't understand and thought it was just for fun but I couldn't swim. A very nice teenager jumped in and saved my life. I remember them taking me to the snack bar and giving me a popsicle. That pretty much made everything better. My mom taught me to swim right afterward.

I did have terrible dreams of my kids drowning when they were younger.

 

My oldest took swim lessons when she was 3 or 4....she didn't really learn how to swim from taking them. It took the summer after of us taking her to the pool everyday. All of my kids have learned just by being in the water a lot. Usually they learn while we are visiting family in Florida and they are in the pool for the entire day! They are all pretty strong swimmers.

 

My neighbor & I took lessons when we were 3. I'm a born & raised California girl, I love to swim. Both of my boys took baby & me classes. I think both made it to Novice II, but with everything else we do, we just don't have time. They go to the city pool & any hotel we stay in must have a pool & hot tub. My mom always says she doesn't know how to swim. I don't know if she's setting an Olympic standard for herself or what, but she can swim.

 

I probably learned to swim mostly from the summer my grandmother managed a mobile home park that had a pool. We spent a lot of time that summer in her pool. I was never given the opportunity to have swimming lessons until the 6 week swimming unit in 10th grade p.e. I remember a little from that class, but I never swim the "official" way with face in water, turning to side to breath. But I can swim the length of the pool just fine anyway.

My 3 kids all love the pool and learned to swim naturally, as we've spent many hours every summer at various pools and a few lakes. I've offered them swimming lessons, but they declined. They're all even better swimmers than I am, though they also don't swim the "official" way. But they can jump off the diving board and swim across the pool, underwater even. And they like to do tricks like handstands and somersaults.