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Well, we started at 6 months and did the parent-child classes until 2.5. I thought it was helpful starting that young because I'm not a swim instructor so I had no ideas of what to do to encourage pre-swimming techniques.

I think what a kid gets out of it depends on the child. There are some kids who've been in his lessons that have no motivation to swim at all, so they continue to repeat the same class over and over - which isn't necessarily a bad thing (J has done the same level three times because there is a checklist of things to master before graduating to the next class, and he's now down to the last thing on the checklist - swimming ten yards with flotation), but the motivation of the child will determine what they get out of it.

For awhile J was more apathetic in his classes, but in the last year he's really started trying harder, especially as he saw the older kids in his class swimming pretty well and he wanted to do what they do. He's three now and doing really well.

We did infant survival lessons at 6 months. That was rough to watch. Not sure if I'll do that again. We are signed up for lessons next week. He will be 27 months old. We've played a lot in the pool over the last few years. And I practice having him lay back in the bath tub or put his face in the water. I think he's made progress. DH thinks we should just take him to the pool ourselves and work with him. That's great and all but we don't make time for it. So I figured paying for classes with a set time I will be forced to take him.

I used to teach lessons 1 & 2, so we haven't signed DD up, we just swim with her when we can. She LOVES the water, btu doesn't really want to learn to float or anything. This fall I want to do the Float for Life class, but otherwise I think I have a pretty good handle on the basics.

I'm wondering about this too, Dd loves the pool but we've only taken her a couple times this winter . This spring our centre is offering "toddler swim class" on Sat mornings....I'm thinking of signing her up just for the fact that it will force me to go every week . I also think it would help get her ready for summer at my parents pool. She's 18mo

We started at 3.5 years and thought that was a good age to start. DD had been exposed to water before, but never had any formal training... but she caught on quickly and loved the lessons right away. She could do a lot of things independently quickly, and within 6 months was swimming on her own. I feel like if I had started any earlier it would've been a waste of money, but who knows!

I think it depends a lot on the kid (no LOs, but experienced with swimming lessons). If you are worried about your kiddo gaining comfort with the water and learning some safety skills, some kids will do a lot of things for a teacher that they won't necessarily do with their parents. Others will get plenty out of pool time with mom & dad.

DS is 19 months and we recently enrolled him in a swim class. It was a big joke and waste of money. Just taking him to the pool would be equivalent to this class.

We enrolled him because a friend of ours a city next to ours enrolled their 18 month old daughter in a swim class and she's actively swimming swimming now. It's impressive. So it depends on the location and teacher I guess. We don't live in that city so can't enroll in their stuff. But for our city, yea, not happening.

DS is always a lil skeptical about the water/pool so we ease him into it. After a few minutes on the sidelines with just his feet wet, he jumps in and can't get enough of the water. Fortunately, he's still willing to leave when we tell him it's time to go!