My DS will be 6 months in Feb when the new term starts. Thinking of putting him in swimming lessons as an activity to do with him.
To those of you that started swimming lessons this early - was it worth it? Was it fun for the parent too? Did you keep going or just do the one term? What do they actually do with small babies?
Thanks in advance!!
we started both girls by 6 months, DD1 (3yrs) is well above the levels she should be for her age, its great the see the previous 2+ yrs of parent/baby class pay off and she her confidence and ability in the pool, well worth it!
The younger you start them the better is my thought anyway!
My lil man has been in the pool from 6 weeks...yes we are lucky we have our own pool but he is already walking along the steps between me and dad and attempting to swim between us as well.
We started DS swimming from 6months. In the class he was in, originally they mainly just sang songs which involved 'swishing' them through the water - like Wheels on the Bus, If your happy and you know it.. splash your hands, blow bubbles etc. They also did activities on a mat on the water, and progressed to sitting/standing on the edge of the pool and jumping/falling in.
DS is 2 now and has only had 1 term off due to whooping cough. He loves swimming and is very confident now. I am very glad I started taking him. Plus he always has a massive sleep after swimming
I was taking DS to swimming lessons when he was 5months old I think. I have depression so it was a nice mostly stress free time to spend with DS, and I am not a confident swimmer so I thought if he started early then he would have a chance to become confident about swimming. He has mostly enjoyed it, except for when he was about 2 and he seemed to get stressed from the Saturday classes because the swim centre was busier than he was used to when we went during the week. Also having a while off for a broken femur affected his confidence, but now he really seems to enjoy it again. We have been going every term since he was 4 months, except for time off for me to do uni stuff or when he was in a hip spica cast.
With the babies it's mostly the parents holding them in the pool, putting them under, holding them to get them used to "floating" on their back, getting the babies to begin holding on to the edge of the pool to do "monkey walking", with ours the instructor would also do things like get the babies to learn to hold their breath and then tip a small bucket of water over their head, she also took the babies and held them as she walked backwards and got them used to holding their breath before she put them under the water. It seems like most of the songs and activities they do are there to prepare them for when they're old enough to do it themselves and apply it to different situations in the water. For instance DS now knows how to swim out to the instructor (kind of - he's a bit of a wobbley swimmer haha), float on his stomach with his face in the water, roll over and float on his back, then roll over again and swim to the step in the pool, and I feel like part of that's because he is quite relaxed about floating in the pool - he has been known as the most laid back back-floater they have ever seen hahaha.
DD started swimming lessons recently , at our one they start at 6 months but ive heard of place starting as early as 4 months.
The program were in is 45 dollars and goes for 4 weeks, dd really enjoys it getting her use to the water and teaching her skills like holding her breath before going under the water, kicking reflexs and hand paddling etc hope that helps hun xxx
We went for our first lesson today, DS is 7 months.
He had the best time, loved every minute of it. We did lots of floating, some on a kick board, some on a ring, lots of just moving the babies through the water to different songs.
After reading all your responses I have booked him in & am now really looking forward to it
I can swim but hate deep water & don't want DS to be influenced by my fears. Plus he loves the bath so hopefully he'll like being in the pool too.
Thanks again!!
Hang on...does this mean I now have to buy bathers lol
Last edited by ~Hestia~; December 7th, 2009 at 04:57 PM.
It's great to do swimming with them. It's all about water awareness at that age and teaching them to "respect" the water and how to hold their own. One thing you could start to do now in the bath is water over the face, you say their name then "ready go" and pour it down their face, they learn to know by the command that they need to hold their breath as they're going to go under the water. Oskar went backwards for about a term at around 18 months and hated going and screamed etc so we took him out, but he's been a lot better after a slow reintroduction.
We started DS at 6 months and have been going all year.
1st 2 terms he loved it and couldn't wait to get in the water and loved being under the water. term 3 and 4 he has hated, have had a different teacher and everytime she goes to do anything with him he screams and last 2 weeks he has bitten me on arm when I have tryed to hand him over. He has had no frights or anything, apparantly they can go through phases like this.
Its mainly songs and splashing and water on head, stretching for balls or toys, crawling or walking across mat etc.
Hi,
I am a swimming instructor and at the moment I take the water baby classes. At this age it is all about awareness and safety.
We sing loads of songs and splash, kick and play. Its all about making it fun for Bubs and the parents.
feeb, that's when we took him out of swimming for a bit. It wasn't worth it, there was nothing being learnt and we didn't want him to have a fear association or anything. When he started back he really seemed to enjoy it and had past that phase/stage or whatever it was.
we started swimming lessons at 6 months for 10 weeks. It was far too repetitive, exact same thing for 10 weeks, no progression. I really suggest you save your money and just take him to the pool on your own and just play. My parents have a pool and i just take him there now and teach him myself.
Are the pools you go to heated pools? I'd like to start DD swimming, not necessarily lessons, have to find out if they do lessons for young babies at our local pool, but even going just to splash around in the baby pools. It's not heated though, I don't want her to get a cold...
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