how many months per yr. do your kids do swim lessons?

[AnnieW625]

When do your kids do swimming lessons? How many months of the year, and if you do privates do you feel guilty if they aren't there all year long? Is cost a factor?

DD1 has been in private lessons at $21 a pop since June. I have been very happy with her progress (she is currently working on basic assisted freestyle), but wonder if I should keep her in a few more months. The pool is indoor, is heated, and DD1 likes her teacher alot. I feel like I'd be short changing her if I pulled her out at the end of the month. DH thinks I am nuts as she is only 4. I would really like DD1 to be ready for group city or YMCA lessons next year where they do lots of assisted freestyle, and next year with two kids in lessons we won't be able to do privates.

WWYD?/WDYD?

[egoldber]

I said all year, but that is recent. We started older DD in private lessons about a year ago after she was still floundering with sporadic group classes. She has made great progress and we think we are going to sign her up for a non-competitive swim team this fall. In which case, we will drop the lessons.

We will start younger DD in group swim lessons at her preschool/daycare this fall. It was a potty training reward. :) Because she can do it at school, it is very easy for us!

[ilfaith]

I voted "other"

The past two years we have started swim lessons in January and continued through the spring. In summer they have swim instruction at camp, but not additional swimming lessons. This fall they boys are doing soccer and have some other activities planned, so we're taking a break from swim lessons...but living in Florida we can use our pool well into autumn.

[giavila]

"other" We do approx. 9 months of swim. We take a break in the fall for soccer season.

eta: If she is enjoying it and making progress I would keep her in lessons.

[tiapam]

I would keep going under those circumstances, as long as you can swing it money and time wise. DD is just finishing up some lessons but I need to find another place if I want her to continue. If I can find a place I will send her through about November. It starts to get pretty cold here then so I would rather not deal with wet hair, wet suits, driving in the snow to go to swim lessons, etc. I would start up again in the spring or summer. We have seen good progress too, so I want her to build on that.

[lil_acorn]

I voted other - we took the summer off due to vacations/ wanting more flexibility. He will probably start up again in the fall or early winter. But withs soccer and baseball, I don't want to overschedule him.

[niccig]

We're other. We did private lessons over the Summer and I now take DS to swim during free swim time. I'm thinking of putting him in some private classes after soccer season to work on his side breathing more - he hasn't quite got the hang of it. I don't want to overload him with soccer practice and game and other activities, but I don't want him to forget things either. So, still deciding.

[pinkmomagain]

I chose other. Our trend has been to take lessons for the year...with a break from Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day. Swim lessons are a pain (changing, wet hair, etc.) and a bit of a drive. So I cut out the time of year that is coldest and also most hectic (holidays). This has worked pretty well for us.

[mousemom]

Voted other. DS has been in weekly lessons (with me) since early February, but we are taking a break for the Fall, mainly because of costs and because there are other activities that I'd like to try with him. We may go back for the winter session. I debated continuing because I don't want him to forget what he's learned so far, but I'm hoping that just taking him swimming myself sometimes will help with that.

ETA: When I was growing up, the only swim instruction I got was at summer camp and I only swam on very rare occasions over the winter (if at all). But I didn't forget what I had learned the summer before and still grew up loving the water.

[erosenst]

We do private lessons. At one point (maybe when she was 3?) we did all year (but only averaged about 2 lessons per month). Now we start in early spring (before our spring break) and continue sporadically through the summer. She swims relatively well, but still lacks the coordination for some things (rotary breathing on freestyle, a well co-ordinated arm and leg movement on breast stroke). Continuing lessons lets her catch up to what she's now able to do, if that makes sense.

[carolinamama]

DS1 has been doing semi-private lessons since last fall. Before he had done some group lessons and never seemed to advance much. Since he really likes to swim and loves his teacher, we are continuing them this fall but may take a break after this session ends in October. Learning to swim has really boosted DS1's confidence in a great way and I am hesitant to take that away from him since he seems to have trouble in this category anyway.

[citymama]

DD's been doing it year round. Our local Parks and Rec has heavily subsidized programs, and over the summer we put her in privately run swim classes at about the same rate. It made the difference - she just learned how to swim!

ETA: If you can, I would encourage doing more than just summer swim - year-round or several months if you can swing it.

[fivi2]

I voted "other"

The past two years we have started swim lessons in January and continued through the spring. In summer they have swim instruction at camp, but not additional swimming lessons. This fall they boys are doing soccer and have some other activities planned, so we're taking a break from swim lessons...but living in Florida we can use our pool well into autumn.

This is basically us also. Last year we did Jan-May lessons (group). They swim all summer and into the fall, but no official lessons during that time. We are taking a break (for soccer) this fall, but I plan to return to lessons in Jan. I hope to do semi-private (just the two of them) next spring, so they will be totally independent by summer - they are close now. (4.5 yo now)

[doberbrat]

we do year round except the summer. during the summer, our Y has more of an 'instructor of the day" deal and dd doesnt do well and I get pissy about it.

plus we're in the watter quite a bit during the summer. prob 5 days a week so I dont feel like she 'needs' it as much.

[K-Bear]

Last year I started my DD on year round lessons. We did group lessons with some privates. We did privates at the beginning of summer when she needed to get over a hump and needed the one on one attention from privates. Did a week of private again this past July when the group lessons I would have signed her up for were already filled.

[Beckylove]

I voted other.

We did the spring session to be "ready" for the summer.

I view swim lessons the same as any other activity. They should be fun for my child, fit into my schedule, fit into our budget and not make my kid be racing from one activity to another. If she likes it, and you want to, keep doing it, but I don't think you should feel pressure to take private swim lessons to get her ready for another swim class where she will be learning a lot of the same stuff.

[edurnemk]

We recently started all year round private lessons. DS is only 2.7 yo, young I know, but we're around water a lot. It's in an indoor heated pool (in our building, so the convinience can't be beat). DS loves it and he's doing great.

Before that we only did a toddler and me program during the summer.

[Gena]

We do year round, athough we do take occassional breaks from swimming lessons. This year, DS took the summer off since we spend a lot of time at the community rec center's water park during the summer. He usually does swim lessons during the school year. Additionally, now that he will be going to school full-day, DS will have swimming one day a week at school as part of his special ed program.

[endlessheather]

We do it all year here but actually take a few breaks from it during the summer. We live in the rainy northwest so we did the soccer camp thing this year for the first time and I'm guessing now that's he's getting old enough for more sports we'll start doing the outdoor stuff in the summer and keep him with swimming during the year since that's inside when it's rainy.

I grew up doing lessons during the summer only and other sports inside during the year but here we do things a bit backwards it seems.

[schrocat]

DS1 will be doing private swim lessons twice a week for the rest of the school year.

[bubbaray]

Year round, EXCEPT not in the summer.

[AnnieW625]

Thank you for all of the input. I think we are going to have to stop after this month finance wise (September is a killer for us), which is a big bummer, but it was kind of the plan in the first place. The neighboring city that has year round group lessons is full for the time slot for DD1 until December so I think I'll sign her up again when the new schedule comes out in January if she still wants to swim. Those lessons are two days a week and $50 a month. A little more reasonable, and hopefully once DD2 is 9 mos. I can take her at the same time.

[american_mama]

My girls were just doing summer lessons, but I think I am going to start year-long classes in the fall. We are hoping to go to the Carribean next summer, and I would like the girls to be able to swim very well before then.

And, I assumed my older DD1, age 8, would be able to easily pass the city swim test for the deep end after a group lesson or two this summer, but she is quite far from being able to do that, much to my chagrin. It has awakened the first truly competitive mothering vibe in me; I can't believe my 8 year old cannot pass when so many 6, 7, and 8 year olds can. Then I start mentally listing all the children her age or younger who can pass the swim test, then start calculating their relative personalities and physical skills in an attempt to explain (usually finding no correlation), then I factor in the frequency of lessons for those kids, all leading me back to despair that my 8 year old cannot pass the swim test. I have gone through this conversation with my sister, my husband, and my brother, I think (my brother helpfully stuttered and gaped when I said my kids couldn't pass the test). They roll their eyes at me. Does she care she can't pass? Nope. Do I care? Yep, quite a lot. I admit my weakness and asked my kids yesterday whether they preferred once a week or twice a week lessons.

[pb&j]

Other - we do swim lessons off-season. We're too busy just having fun at the pool in the summer for lessons. Our gym has nice indoor pools, and lots of private/semiprivate/group/mommy & me lessons to choose from during the winter.

This year, DS was 4 and really ready for swim lessons, so I did weekly private lessons for the 6 weeks before the pools opened for the summer so he'd be ready to go. It worked out really well, and I'll probably do that again next spring with both kids.

[alien_host]

Year round, EXCEPT not in the summer.

:yeahthat: So about mid-september until mid-June.

DD swims a lot in the summer since we have a pool. She also didn't go to camp this summer so it might change for next year (and I suppose camp might include swimming). We do lessons at the local Y and although it wasn't a private lesson, the last few months she ended up being the only one in her class so by default it was private. I do prefer her to have a few kids in her class b/c I think she does better when there are one or two kids along with her.