S/o what progress do you expect from swimming lessons?

[bettyandbob]

Do you sign up for swim lessons that run once a week for 8 weeks and expect your child to pass the level in one session.

 

How often outside of lessons do you take your dc to practice skills and play in water.

[ChristusG]

When our first DD was 4, we signed her up for a several week course at the YMCA. At the end, she had learned nothing. The next year I found out about Infant Swim Resource lessons and signed both if my DD's up (then they were 5 and 2). Within 5 weeks, they were swimming and could save themselves if needed. My third DD just finished up her ISR lessons a few weeks ago. She's 20 months old. I can't recommend group swim lessons after seeing what ISR can do.

[Jean in Newcastle]

It depends on the skills that they are learning in that session.  Some sessions are more of a developmental jump than others.  We found that it usually took a couple of sessions to pass the earlier levels while my kids sped up in their progression as they got older.  But of course that is going to depend on each child.

[StartingOver]

My son learned to swim with me. Swim lessons teach him new strokes. I am reading my daughter this year. I don't expect them to pass after 6 weeks, I prefer they redo a class of need be. We did six weeks of lessons this year, might do another later in August. We swim two to five days a week on our own, they spend fifteen minutes each day working on skills introduced in lessons.

[StartingOver]

Double post.

[catz]

My kids had to do almost very level more than once with only a couple exceptions. My older just skipped level 5 this summer, so it's possible to get bumped ahead too. We hadn't done lessons for a year, but he quite a bit stronger.

[lailasmum]

The swim lessons my dd did were in longer sessions. About 12 weeks. I do not necessarily expect her to have passed each session but I expect her to have gained more skills than just how to splash about, there seemed to be very little actual teaching going on.

 

Having used the uswim site lessons and got massive progress in a few sessions I think group lessons are hugely flawed. The pool seems to want to cram as many kids in a small space as possible to make money. It's not in their interest to have your kids succeed.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Having used the uswim site lessons and got massive progress in a few sessions I think group lessons are hugely flawed. The pool seems to want to cram as many kids in a small space as possible to make money. It's not in their interest to have your kids succeed.

 

That hasn't been our experience at the Y.  They have published objectives for each session and actively work on those objectives.  Because the objectives were published, we were free to work on those same objectives on our own if we wanted to just for extra practice.  In the younger levels - before they were able to swim in the lap pool, they had a 4:1 student teacher ratio  In the older levels once they were in the lap pool the student teacher ratio increases because the kids do not always have to be at arms length from the teacher.  

[Melissa in Australia]

we only have swimming lessons available for 2 weeks of the whole year. My children all did those lessons and passed the level in the 2 weeks. the following year they would do the next level and pass it in 2 weeks and so on. that was all the formal instruction they had. We live right on the coast  there is a small cliff, then the estuary, then the ocean. My children swim about every second day in summer.

[lailasmum]

That hasn't been our experience at the Y. They have published objectives for each session and actively work on those objectives. Because the objectives were published, we were free to work on those same objectives on our own if we wanted to just for extra practice. In the younger levels - before they were able to swim in the lap pool, they had a 4:1 student teacher ratio In the older levels once they were in the lap pool the student teacher ratio increases because the kids do not always have to be at arms length from the teacher.

That sounds rather better. Ours will take as many as they can cram in. My dd's last term of lessons there was about 10 to 12 in the small pool with a teacher and a helper. The pool was too small for them all be in at once. There's no lesson plans that we have access too. I've noticed that this pool has a massive drop off in numbers after the lower 2 levels which are very basic. I would hazard a guess it's other parents like me finding alternative methods. The place has a bad reputation.

[bettyandbob]

I teach swimming year round and encounter a variety of parents. I have kids in all levels who make progress each session, but I do not have a high pass rate. Our sessions are typically 7 weeks. I take the time to note what skills are passed and hope far a child has gotten on a skill. I have noticed the children who make the most progress are going swimming more than a once a week 30 minute lesson. I make sure I have introduced every skill expected at a level within a session, but if everyone in the group is at the low end of the level most of the class time will be devoted to basics of the level. if I have one really advanced student, he may get different drills than the rest f the class.

 

I think class management is an extremely important skill to have that many, many teachers are lacking. My class sizes are 1:4for preschool beginners, 1:5 or 6 for advanced preschoolers, 1: 6 beginners aged 7 and up and 1: 8 for advanced students (my levels 5 or 6 are overloaded at times with my approval if a student on the waiting list is known to me to be ready for the class and not disruptive) . I hate to see classes where teachers work with one child at a time and all others are sitting on the side. I generally keep all the children in the whole time. When I work with children individually the other children have a drill ( kicking and breathing for beginners) to do. In my adv levels the kids know hat they don't just stand around and wait for the last person to finish their lap. Often they work on doing flips in the water so they can maintain being tucked through a flip turn.

 

I guess I see the big legitimate complaints of parents could be met with decent class management. However, I also see expectations very unrealistic for parents who never take their child to a body of water.

 

Another problem at some facilities is instructors consistently having subs, so a different teacher works with the kids every week. The Y where I used to work had this. A sub doesn't know the kids or the skills that need to be emphasized. I think if you have more than 2 subs a sessions, you have a real reason to complain and ask for your money back. My current facilty will take classes away from an instructor will asks for subs regularly.

[Melissa in Australia]

I forgot to add that the 2 week lessons are for 45 minutes, five days a week for the 2 weeks.

[wintermom]

I taught swimming lessons for years, too, and sometimes encountered parents with unrealistic expectations. It wasn't all that often, though.

 

As a parent on the other side, I expect my dc:

 

- to have a lot of 'water time' where they don't sit on the edge waiting for their turn.

- the instructor to give praise and correction to each swimmer at least once during every lesson - not necessarily in every stroke or skill done in the lesson, though.

- I don't expect my child to pass the level the first time they try for it. I don't have the time to get the children to the pool to practice between lessons, and I've not met too many parents who actually do this.

- I expect my child to have bursts of quick progression in the early levels when they're developmentally and physically ready and strong enough to master the skills.

 

I agree with you about continuity with the instructor throughout a set of lessons. I've not had this problem at any of the facilities I've done lessons at with my dc, though.

 

My biggest frustration with swimming lessons in our city is that the pools have flipped programs three times in the last 8 years. Each program has a different number of levels, ranging from 6 to 12 levels, each program has different strokes and different times when the student are expected to start learning them. This is completely unacceptable, and it's not the instructors' or students' fault AT ALL, yet their ability to teach and learn is totally undermined.

 

[Wilma]

My people, sometime between 2 and 3.5 years old, each have taken an 8 session swim lesson. Each lesson is 40ish minutes, no usually there have been 8-10 kids in the lesson. By the end of the first week (lesson 4), the kids jump in from the side, swim to the steps (faces in) and climb out. The gal who does these lessons is amazing. The first couple of stays there were tears, but it's so worth it to see their pride in an accomplishment.

[catz]

I was going to add, my kids (12 and 9) started mommy and me lessons as young toddlers and have done swimming on and off since then. We are not the type to get in a pool every day all summer, so our progress hasn't followed that kind of line. We do have reasonable pool access, but the public pools in the summer are PACKED. They are not great places to practice skills anyway.

 

So we've had wonderful teachers and poor teachers. We've taken lessons at 5 different places over the years (more about schedule and geography than one program being better.) We've had sessions with lots of progress and sessions with little progress. Sometimes we'd be off swimming lessons for a few months and get to the pool on our own and something would click or more confidence would come on our own. We hit a couple of bottlenecks with my oldest that needed to be resolved with private lessons.

 

So my kids were not the type where something clicked at age 5 and they were suddenly "swimmers". They had lots of little phobias to overcome to get to this point. I think it's good to just keep getting wet and trying. Not every kid is going to be amazing. If you hit a bottle neck or unhappy with a particular teacher or program, look at trying something different.

[SKL]

My kids usually have to repeat the post-preschool levels.  In my opinion, it's a matter of their personal willingness to try their best.  I don't generally "push," because I don't mind paying for them to repeat a level once.  However, I do prefer for them to move up after the second try.

 

I sign my kids up for 3 8-week sessions each year, so even if they repeat, they are making progress over time.  (ETA, the lessons are once-weekly; 30 minutes at the lower levels, then 45 minutes.  So not very intense at all.)  Considering I never learned to dog-paddle until I was 8, I'm satisfied.

 

Once my girls both finished their second time through a level, and Miss E passed, but Miss A failed one skill (swim unsupported for x yards).  I had them practice during free swim until Miss A could swim x yards consistently, and then I signed them both up for the next level.  Surprisingly, they both passed the next level on their first time through.  And Miss A actually did better than Miss E for a change.  Hmmm.

 

Ideally I like to let the kids go to free swim outside of lessons, but that depends on our schedule, and nowadays, it doesn't happen regularly.  Some weeks they get lots of swimming in, other weeks none.

[weddell]

My kids were doing swimming with a single coach who didn't have levels. You just kept going and he added new skills and changed the drills as kids progressed. The ratio was usually around 5 kids to the coach. I used to sit and watch the lessons and some kids progressed quite quickly through skills and some took forever. I really think there are a lot of variables on how much a particular child will progress and it isn't always the coach's effectiveness that determines progress. My daughter's progress was probably pretty average and my son did quite well (given their ages). I don't think I would do group lessons bigger than this since I could see on days that there were more kids, the lessons were less effective. Since he knew the kids well, he knew what to work on each class so I think that makes a big difference too. I wouldn't do lessons where coaches and expectations were changed frequently. We went 2-3 times per week.

 

We have never done those 2 week summer classes that were mentioned. It has always seemed to me that consistent year-round (as much as possible) instruction is better even if it is only once or twice a week. I could totally be wrong about that though. I could definitely see doing one lesson a week year round and then also doing the short 2 week intensive lessons in the summer. I just worry that if you only do the 2 weeks in the summer, that the skills would be forgotten over the year even if the kid learned a lot in those two weeks.

[chepyl]

My kids made a lot of progress in there 4 week session at the ymca. I, however, had spent a lot of time teaching them the basics on my own. Being with a different teacher just gave them some confidence. They both swim independently now. I am putting them in a few more sessions so they can learn the different strokes.

[bettyandbob]

 

My biggest frustration with swimming lessons in our city is that the pools have flipped programs three times in the last 8 years. Each program has a different number of levels, ranging from 6 to 12 levels, each program has different strokes and different times when the student are expected to start learning them. This is completely unacceptable, and it's not the instructors' or students' fault AT ALL, yet their ability to teach and learn is totally undermined.

 

About 2 years ago Red Cross decided to raise the cost of using their programs. I think it was something like $5 per participant. I think they thought providers would pass the cost on to each participant by raising fees $5 per session. However, a large portion of swim lesson providers are government entities. Government usually have guidelines that say if the cost of paying a vendor goes over X dollars then there must be an open bid for vendors. In my county we have 7 indoor pools providing lessons to a large number of people so the $5 fee per participant raise way over shot the open bid requirement. This actually happened all over the country and a lot of places are dropping Red Cross. Local government aquatic managers across my state have been creating their own program, much like Red Cross, but with some changes they thought were important. My boss told me the state group is making the program free to use. The only thing we teach now that is officially Red Cross is Lifeguarding and WSI. 

 

Anyway all that to say, your agency has probably been changing programs because of the higher Red Cross fees. They may have started with a new one and found it inferior and then started another. 

[PeacefulChaos]

Do you sign up for swim lessons that run once a week for 8 weeks and expect your child to pass the level in one session.

 

How often outside of lessons do you take your dc to practice skills and play in water.

Depends on the lessons. Silly, easy lessons that our local YMCA does - yes, they can easily pass a level in one 4 week session. But I actually don't know that they do those any more - now they don't have levels at the y, iirc. We don't go there anyway.

Our kids do one hour lessons for 3 weeks, 2x/ wk. (red cross). we put them in once a year. They don't pass a level each year - right now both of the boys are in level 2. Astro has 7 things left to pass - link has 3. Pink is in level 1 - this was her first year so she has a lot to learn yet.

There are no 'infant swim lessons' where we live. I'm assuming that is regional. Hence this being pink's first year.

 

We don't have much opportunity to take the kids swimming outside of lessons, unfortunately. I'd love to have a pool but it isn't practical for us, especially right now (we rent, no fence and lots of kids in the neighborhood, cost, upkeep, etc). The pool where the kids take lessons isn't open to the public. There are 2 (I think) pools that are open on a daily basis in our county, but one is about 5-10 minutes out of town and the other is $8/person/day. (The farther one is $5 I think?). A friend of mine goes to one of the local colleges to swim because her husband works there, and we may go with them at some point, but honestly it's really inconvenient dealing with locker rooms and all that carp... Ugh. I wouldn't want to do it on a regular basis. The local y is ridiculously expensive ($55/mo for a family, last I heard, though I wouldn't be at all surprised if its gone up since then) so we don't go there. My in laws have a pool but they don't take excellent care of it, and I don't want to go out to their house (they only live like 10-15 minutes away) regularly anyway.

In the end, a lot of it comes down to cost. Swimming opportunities here are, unfortunately, expensive or unlikely. And I'm saving my money for Thailand. Sorry but that is more important right now than a fun day at the pool or a membership to the YMCA. Especially since I have 2 kids that are ok swimmers and dh and I are both excellent swimmers coupled with the fact that there isn't much of a danger on a regular basis right now.

I see videos and such, and hear people online talk about the kids learning how to swim super young and I think that is awesome, but that sort of thing just doesn't exist here.