Swimming lessons- again!!!

[lau86]

My ds will be 5 in September and has been doing swimming lessons for roughly 9-10 months. He was very unhappy at the start and clung to the instructor. He's improved in such as he will now swim along with his float and back float on but that was in the first 2-3 weeks and not a lot of progress has been made since. They ask all the kids to jump in at the end and ds has always jumped and had someone catch him (they're in the water with them). He still insists on having someone to catch him and seems more afraid than he did at the start. We have talked about it and he says he's afraid. He sees the others jumping in and knows it's ok. He also won't put his face in the water. I don't think the instructors are trying with him, to move onto the next step they need to be able to Put their face in the water and he is falling behind. Instead of encouraging him they just leave him swimming up and down with his float like ground hog day.
I have the opportunity to move swimming lessons and the new lessons would be much better for practical reasons (closer to home , cheaper etc). I don't want to upset him any more. I don't know whether to 1) keep going with his current lessons and have faith that they know what they're doing (which I'm really not feeling at the moment) 2) move to the other place 3) stop lessons altogether

 

[LoraLoo]

It'd be 2 for me. 9 months is ample time for them to have built his confidence up and moved him on with the swimming.

My 7 year olds class has just started swimming lessons with school this last half term and ive been going to watch, there was some very nervous swimmers, some that wouldn't even enter the water, and within 5 weeks ive watched the progress they've made already and how their confidence is growing.

I wouldn't just give up as I think swimming is a skill that they really need but Id share your frustration x

 

[Fredapain]

My DS started when he was 4. He's took just under a year to progress through foundation and stage 1. He had major issues with getting his face wet, let alone fully going under. They said he could wear goggles but don't encourage it. My DS said no way to goggles. I think what really helped my DS move up is practicing between lessons. Hard to do to fit in with school (his lessons are sat mornings) and also bloody expensive. We tend to do it in blocks when he's struggling with something. We recently did a couple of weeks of mid week practice after he banged his head on the side when doing swimming on his back during a lesson! He just needed practice and us reassuring him.

 

[caz_hills]

My son was the same. Very scared at first and cautious but we kept going. He has been going 18 months and last term swam for the first time without floats or arm bands. I was so proud! I personally wouldn't move him. We thought about moving our son but I just gave it time. He hasn't progressed as fast as some other kids but is with some others still. I think they take their own time.

Some kids have no fear of the water - jump in, go under. My son is still like you - he doesn't like jumping in or being splashed. But his confidence is slowly growing so I'm sticking with it. I think if we moved classes his confidence could go backwards x

 

[CookieCupcake]

I would change. I was in the exact same position as you. My LO seemed to be going backwards rather than progressing where he had his lessons. He barely swam and spent 25 minutes of the half an hour lesson stood against a wall. He wouldn't put his face in the water, if he wasn't swimming fast enough for their liking they would just drag him along in the water so he wasn't actually swimming. I wasted my money for over a year for no reason!

I changed the place he was having lessons and his first lesson he didn't want to go and got a little upset but within a week or 2 he had progressed more and had more confidence than a year of lessons had done at the last place.

Some swimming lessons and instructors are a complete and utter rip off!

 

[alibaba24]

My dd 6 year old has always hated getting wet with the exception of the bath even then hair washing and the thought of water going in her eyes mouth freaks her out. I decided to put her in lessons because shes now 6 she is noticeably behind the rest of her class she still wont jump in or put her head under but recently after 2 months started to blow bubbles in the water which is a big deal to her putting her mouth to the water. I plan in just keeping her in these lessons because shes progressing just very slowly . With you though i would definately opt for option 2 it really does sound like it would be worth a try and not missing anything from his current lesson

 

[liz1985]

Id change, although it can take a while for them to progress if they are very nervous, and they dont actually get that much time each lesson, im guessing yours is similar but in my ds class he gets a 30min lesson and there are 6 children in his class so its not much time per week really. Do you go swimming just for fun or just for lessons? If your not already doing so id try and go just for fun at least once a week and i think you'll see a big difference. We took ds quite often from being a young baby, and when he started lessons aged 3, he got through ducklings (3 stages) really fast but he's been in the next group for 7months, we'd stopped taking him as often just for fun but i started taking him every sunday morning and he's made a massive improvmemt and is almost ready to move stages again now.

 

[OmarsMum]

We started lessons on & off 2 years back, I honestly didn't see much improvement until recently when he started to take individual lessons for 1 hr twice a week. We started 2 months back only.

When we started lessons 2 yrs back he used to cling to the instructor, he refused to wear goggles, getting him to go under water was impossible, but now he is confident and 2 days back he was able to swim without a float the whole length of the pool back & forth without a break. He needs more work on his arms movement & strokes but he's getting there. We also take him once a week to swim.

I'd move to another place, we changed 4 instructors until we found the right one.

 

[lau86]

Thanks for all your replies. I'm done with the lessons. I was done last week but I'm seriously done now. Another bug bear Is that half the time they're not even swimming they're just pulling them up the pool by their floats. There was a different teacher today and he took a few seconds to demonstrate what he wanted ds to do regarding putting His face in and he put it in for a few seconds. We're all joining a gym so we'll start going as a family more I do think that will help.