Can Your Child Swim?

We live in AZ and have a pool. My kids had lessons when they were 4 and 1. Now they are almost 11 and almost 8. I don't think the lessons really helped. Since we already were in the pool every day, the oldest had those arm floatie things and she just puttered around with those until she got the hang of it and just started swimming. My little one was in one of those floatie things they sit in and he flipped upside down in it and I swear he started swimming right after that! They are litterally fish now.

I would start with the arm floaties and just keep doing what you're doing. It also helps when they can touch the bottom on their own. Plus we have a "play pool" which has the very shallow part (about 1 foot deep) so they would just step off that and "swim" back to it and then would just get farther and farther out. I think it just takes some time and practice. Good luck!

I have to agree that it has a lot to do with the personality of the child. My son is 6 and he has always been afraid of the water. I went to his dad's house to watch him swim yesterday and he has really progressed. He still wears his floaties but jumps in from the side and stays under the water to swim. I put him in swimming lessons a few years back and at the end of the session the teacher wrote on a piece of paper that he should not progress to the next level because he was scared of the water. Duh..........I thought that the teacher was supposed to help him through this!! I never did that again. My son's father told me that just having the other kids around and watching them play in the water helped bunches. I noticed yesterday that my son was getting a lot of water in his nose and I showed him how to blow bubbles and puff out a little right before hit the water. This helped a lot. The goggles idea was wonderful also for my other son. I would just let him play in the water with you for a while and just let him get comfortable and take off.

gradually increase the distance he has to swim back to get out of the pool. both of my boys learned to swim at age 3 without any formal lessons, just swimming in the pool in our backyard.

I taught my kids to swim be first teaching them to hold their breath and go under water. Then they learned to fetch small rocks. First, they would drop them right in front of their feet, and gradually throw them farther and farther. Your goal is not to teach them to "swim" but to be safe in the water. This means understanding what to do if they accidentally fall in the deep end. A "swimmer" may panic underwater and never surface. To be water-safe, they need to be able to jump into the deep end, make it to the side of the pool, and GET OUT by themselves. Once they can do that, they can learn all the different strokes called "swimming".

My son is 4 as well. We have a backyard pool so I started teaching him to swim a couple of years ago. We bought those pool noodles and a kick board. He also liked using swim fins. He is really good at swimming now and I think the equipment we used was really helpful. To get him to start swimming under water to retrieve toys, I bought those small torpedo toys that light up. My son loved those!

Best of luck and have fun!

I taught my sis to swim when she was about 3 and I was 11 she use water wings and I taught her the basic arm and leg motions. then we took off the water wings and she swam with my hands under her torso. I slowly started holding her up less and less intill she was swimming on her own. I use to work at the Y (I ran the front desk) and i dont like their swimming program either. My cousins took lesson there for year and still dont know how to swim (and they are now adults)

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My daughter is 3 1/2 and just started really swimming this summer. She has been in lessons since she was 2.5 mo old. The classes I took her to are a little different then regular swin classes, its like suvival swim. They teach them to turn and float on ther back after there face goes under the water (she has been doing this for about 2 yrs unassisted). Then it goes into turning you head to breath which turns into freestyle tech. She has been able to float and swim on her back for about a year, her little butt sinks so it has taken until now that she can swim the length of a pool without having to turn and float. She can jump off the side of the pool and swim to the other side. I think the methods that they used at the swim class helped tremendously with this and I would recommend this kind of class to anyone with kids. We never used floats of any kind so its really hands in when they are younger but at your sons age he would probably pick up really quick. Hope this helps, and if you have any ?s about this let em know.

My son has been in swim classes at the Y for 3 years, and is still not a great swimmer. One of the instructors told us it has more to do with his size than his ability (he is small and very skinny, can't stand in the pool and doesn't float well).

He does best in one on one or very small group lessons - maybe give that a try and see if you feel the instruction is better. If you are going to teach your son yourself be sure to get a belt like they use at the Y to that he is able to float while learning the arm and leg motions of strokes.

We also have a pool and 6 out of 7 of my kids/nephews have learned to swim, by age 4...I didn't even bother w/the mommy and me classes and put them in level 1 at 3 yrs old. Our Parks and Recreation program offers "American Red Cross" lessons and they were great. My oldest 3 kids all had 7 years of swim lessons and I intend to have the remaining 4 do the same...because once they have mastered the Freestyle, they are golden..this takes a bit longer to learn but they catch on really fast if you continue with lessons every year and you are lucky to have the pool and be able to practice all the time...this really is a great advantage!

You sound like your son is right on track, just keep at it! I would just practice holding yours and his breath under water at the same time...this is (usually) fun for them and gets them used to being fully submerged...the way I did it was to tell them lets have a Tea Party under water...I would sit indian style under water and pretend to pour them tea and hand them cups...it was fun! The diving toys are also a good motivator, we started on the 2nd step in the shallow end!

I never considered my kids "real swimmers" till they could swim from one end of the pool to the other w/out going for an edge, I always swam right along side of them at first, just in case...and then jump into the deep end and retrieve something off the bottom of the pool, this didnt happen for my kids untilo around 6 thru 8, but its a bit scary for some.

All this takes some time because the doggie paddle isn't very effective for the lil' guys, they have to do sooo much work to get anywhere :) but practice, practice, practice and he'll get it...probably by the end of this summer, just you wait!

My 2 yr old is at the stage of swimming as your son but I will not let her go without her life jacket because I know she is not capable of going very far...she wants to so badly and tries so hard to be like the big boys! She is the youngest and the only girl in a house full of 7 kids...and is on track to beat all the boys' records...she walked at 8 months...and will probably be swimming at 3, at the rate she is going:)

try getting a kick board. Most kids will kick their feet wrong by bending their knees instead of flutter kicking. Teach kicking first and then the arms if you are trying to teach free-style. The hips should do all the work when you flutter kick.

I've successfully taught several children (2 cousins, 3 children from church, a neighbor, but they were like 6+) how to swim, surprisingly quickly. What I did with them was hold their belly and teach them to float face down. Relax, lay still, don't fight, when you need to breath, turn your face to the side for air and then back down...then hold them with 3 fingers, then gently let go. Let them just relax like they're "sleeping" in the water like that. Once they're good with floating, then floating and breathing, add arms to it. Then legs. It worked great!
Oddly enough, my son isn't "a floater". I found out that some people's bone densities are different and they don't float as easily as others. I did not try to teach my son so much.....he's hard headed and would do better learning something like this from someone else (or is it me that's hard headed? I dunno). But he's 3 1/2 and swimming pretty good. He can swim breast stroke and the crawl, and can dive headfirst a little bit, can jump off the wall and swim out, turn around, and return. I took him last year to a community center thing. Basically, they taught him to not be scared of the water, and to do the arm strokes and kick.....but.....it was cool for 2 years old but not "swimming" ya know? This year I took him to Aquakids (more expensive, but better reputation) and it was a 2 week thing....the first week I was thinking "Wow, what a waste of time and money, but he's having fun so whatever" but the second week, it just clicked and we were like "WOW! this kid can swim!"

I love the way you have taken his lessons on yourself. That is so cool! Swimming is a big deal to us, and our son is taking mommy and me lessons with a private instructor this year instead of through our community program as we tried that last summer. My friend has a pool and the instructor comes over and teaches private and semi-private lessons to families for a whole day because this has become so popular. You can call swim schools because I have heard of this type of set up many times. It is like a fun filled day with kids and families, so your lifestyle will determine if you want to include others to split the cost, or just keep it private. One tip, collect a one time fee from all involved for keeping the pool heated to a comfortable temp for the summer. This truly makes a better learning environment for all. Specifically we are not as advanced yet as what you are working on with your son,but I would reccomend learning to climb out anywhere. Although my son is only two, he can say "elbow elbow, knee knee" as we help him use those body parts to hoist him out the side. Miss Heidi wants the kids to feel safe anywhere in the pool so they learn this first and floating on their backs. My son is also learning to kick around using a kickboard. That is all I can think of now, have fun swimming!

I've been really active in the water with my now 4 year old since he was an infant. For the last few summers, he's worn floaties and progressed to jumping in from the side, but he hasn't ever taken off and actually swam until this year. He is 4, and he seemed to get the most direction and use out of wearing the arm floaties. I worked with him about kicking and moving his arms, and he got that down with the floaties on and then decided he could do it without them -plus he wanted to swim underwater. Buying him goggles REALLY helped this. He also got very interested in another kid's dive sticks at the pool and wanted to be able to swim down to get them. We had been working on holding your breath, going underwater, etc. and one day he just took off! Good luck! Once he starts, he'll progress quickly because they have so much fun!

Our daughter learned to swim last summer, when she was 4. First we started off w/ the group swim lessons, which I felt were a waste of money and time. Then I switched to private lessons and boy! The individual attention was what helped her learn to swim. More than worth the extra money that we spent. Incidentally, we just finished up another session of private lessons this summer because kids always need a refresher course each summer until they're really strong swimmers.

One of the most impt. things she learned immediately is that when they jump in the water, they immediately flip over to their back and float. If there is ever an accident and they fall in, they will remember this and instead of panicking, they'll roll over. Teach your child to float first. Our daughter now uses this tool constantly. When she poops out and she's in the middle of the pool, she simply has to roll over onto her back to take a breather. You might also want to get a kickboard and have your son practice kicking in the pool on it to get the feeling of swimming.

Good luck!

My 8.5 yr old taught herself in our neighbors pool two summers ago.
at 4.5 your son is doing well.

I would google, "how to teach kids to swim" and I'm sure there would be videos that would come up, there's videos for everything else. Also go on amazon.com and look for the same thing and I'm sure there's videos and/or books.

my daughter is seven, and i have just now convinced her to put her face under water, all this time its been a fear., but my almost two year old, already doing it happily.

it just depends on the child