Hellobee Boards

Mine is also 3 (almost 3.5) and doesn't know how to swim. We're just taking group swimming lessons and working on it. We'll just keep going I think - I'm not trying to rush it.

Though there were kids in his class last summer that were under 2 and pros at swimming! Crazy!!!

The summer after she turned 3 she could a bit towards the end of the summer. At 4 she started out being scared again but could doggy paddle the length of the pool by the end of the summer. She just turned 5 last week and loves swimming under the water and can get herself around a good distance well but isn't doing the arm movements of freestyle yet. She's never been in lessons so I think we're going to have her do them this year Bc she's so close to being a pretty good lil swimmer. I'd say most of her 5 year old friends are at the same point, can get around but the arm movements aren't quite there. And then there's one girl who is 5.5 and looks like a professional perfectly coordinated swimmer.

Mine started real swim classes (not just parent tot music class in a pool) around 3 years 10 months. Pretty quickly she could float on her front and back, dive down to retrieve things, and was swimming assisted across a short pool (meaning she was in the proper position and the swim instructor was next to her holding her hands out in front to guide her - so LO is supporting her own body in the water and kicking). Now she's 4 years 6 months and can swim independently across the short end of the pool on her front and also on her back. Now that she's passed those levels she will move on to learning to swim with different strokes and proper breathing technique so she can swim long distances - the first stroke they learn is freestyle I believe.

I wouldn't worry too much about starting early bc it's mostly for fun in the beginning. Kids that start later - closer to 5 - do really well and move through the skill levels quickly bc they are better at understanding the swim instructor and have better command of their body.

@dolphin: Yeah! I guess they were coming all the time ever since 6 months or something! It was nuts!

We started swim lessons at two (Mommy and me when she was a baby) and took to it like a mermaid. We took a break for a year, at 4 because there was no progress beyond one breath of swimming distance. . I think it was mainly because of coordination and swim school issues. LO is only now learning to take a breath and keep swimming and she is 5- and we taught her ourselves! I am putting her back in another swim school ASAP and she can go up to Stroke Development class, then has to reach 7 years old before she can advance beyond that.