Swimming Lessons - Saint Paul, MN

My son and I are starting (group) swimming lessons at the Midtown YWCA next month. I think for an 8-week class for non-members, it is $66 and for members it is around $45. My son is 6 months old as well, which is the age that they can start lessons at the YWCA. I have several cousins and friends who brought their children to the Y for lessons, and they loved it.

My daughter had her swim lessons at our local ymca in Burnsville. Loved it, It was cheap, and if anything the chemicals were to strong, never had a problem with cleanliness or disease. We did lessons every week for over a year and not a single problem.The ymca was very affordable and I was just in today looking at lessons for my daughter for this coming summer.If you become a member at the Y it's almost dirt cheap, roughly 20 dollars for 6 weeks or so. They have parent/baby classes where you go together until the child is about 3 years old or so. My daughter almost drowned twice at age 3 in a hotel pool and became a paranoid scardy cat and I can't blame her. They did miracles with my child and in one year she was swimming all by herself in any depth of water, putting her head under and not the least bit scared but educated especially with safety. I have no idea if this ties together but we have no problems in the bath tub either with washing hair, she's very comfortable with water. I also liked that fact they have adult locker rooms and Under 18 locker rooms for children/teens as well as co-ed locker rooms for families with handicapped children or parents with the opposite sex children. The lifeguards are very strict and attentative I felt confident if I ever ran into a problem.

My personal opinion is swim schools are over priced! The ymca was very affordable and I was just in today looking at lessons for my daughter today for this coming summer.

Is there a community center by your home that you can check into? I know in IGH they have a community center and they have swimming classes for 6mo. olds. There is an expense to it but not as expensive as having private lessons:)

We go to Southdale YMCA and love it!! They have a shallow, 3 1/2 feet deep therapy pool that is warm. They do the lessons for the little guys in there so the cold doesn't scare them so much. They're a little spendy if you're not a member (I think around $10 per class), but family membership is pretty reasonable, especially considering most health insurance will reimburse 1/2 the cost if you go 12 times a month (and your lesson counts as 1 visit each time you go). Also, they have FREE childcare!! Kind of fun to take a moment for a yoga class or workout.
Best of luck!

Have you tried St. Louis Park Community Education Programs? They offer lessons starting at 5 months. http://stlouispark.registryinsight.com/ittrium/servlet/visit

Also, SW High offers lessons at their pool through Minneapolis Community Education. Not sure of the web site for that. If neither of those work, email me back and I can give you other options I learned from ECFE class. Good luck!

We do swimming lessons at Lifetime. They are not as expensive as Foss and feel that my daughter is learning alot.

I like the swim lessons taught at the YMCA in Edina off of York Ave. My son loves them and he's 2 1/2.

K.

Wise and Foss Swim Schools are suppose to be the best (clean, small classes, warm pool, etc.). I can only vouch for Wise in Apple Valley, but I am sure they are all great. I was strongly advised by my daycare lady to stay away from the YMCA, they apparently have big problems with cleanliness and the spreading of disease. Good luck!

We are not in your area but hope our experiences might help. It really depends upon the child's learning style.

We tried a Community Center Pool where we were members and that was an ok start but she only progressed so far. Wanting to keep costs low next we tried swimming lessons through the commmunity education system that used a Middle School pool. Being older then, she learned to jump into the pool and climb out of it best she could and put her head under water. We have a friend that was sending there child the same time to FOSS. The child is good in sports. Anyhow in about 5-6 lessons he became a very good swimmer from the lessons at FOSS. Even though they seem pricey they will allow a child to repeat a class at No Charge if they tried to learn and were at most of the classes. We even got to have a Private Lesson at not charge once!

Now after that she did advance to her next level which means doing small laps with breaks at each end of the small areas they swim in. We are proud of her reaching this and can see her someday being a better swimmer than either of us. So I think if you have a chance try a school like FOSS. Their equipment is incredible and creative how they adapted things and cater the trainging they offer to very youngest of kids.

The YMCA has great, affordable lessons for babies!