We started swim lessons a couple weeks ago. I figured this would be a fun Summer time activity, but DH wants to do this year round to help LO become a really good swimmer. What do you all do?
My main hesitation for continuing this in the colder months is how uncomfortable the changing area is. If he really wants to do this I may just have to put my foot down and insist he go in the water with LO.
wonderful clementine / 24134 posts
Is it an outdoor heated pool? If its an indoor pool I wouldn't see the issue.
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
@T.H.O.U.: it's an indoor pool. The issue is that in cold months we can't leave half wet. Ha!
I am all for instilling a stick-with-it-attitude, which is not what I had growing up, but the changing area really is gross. The YMCA or Aquatic center may better a cold- weather months option.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
We just started lessons again this past weekend. Planning on keeping her in them all year since she is 4 and needs to know how to swim. When she was younger we just did them in the summer. The place is really nice and has hair dryers for her hair.
pomelo / 5298 posts
We are just starting to explore the idea for our nearly six year old. She's in private lessons this week. But I think she's going to need more.
grapefruit / 4584 posts
My kids take swimming lessons basically March - mid November. This year we may do the winter session, too. It's an indoor heated pool, and we definitely leave half-wet in the winter. I just change their clothes, towel their hair off a bit, put on a hat, and dash to the car. It's not as big of a deal as I expected it to be. They like it enough that the whining over being cold is brief, if it happens at all.
pomelo / 5573 posts
We do them year round - or rather on and off, but not just in the summer (actually not at all in the summer, we have too much other stuff happening). We use our local community centre classes.
clementine / 769 posts
We don't have a real winter where we live so I can see us only skipping December/January due to holiday travel. I understand your concern with the cold weather. Maybe consider a facility that has blow dryers, showers, and those machines that wring out your swimwear.
cherry / 196 posts
I do them year round, in Minnesota where it's freezing. The facility I go to does have a nice changing area, so we shower, towel off, and put on clothes before leaving, but hair is still wet (under a hat in the cold months).
hostess / wonderful persimmon / 25556 posts
@Mrs. Lemon-Lime: um, yeah. If your husband is insistent on it then he gets to participate!!
persimmon / 1379 posts
This year we did Sept-Dec, March-June but have normally done Sept-June. In the colder months we just change, towel off hair and throw on a hat before leaving, though there are some people who do a full blow dry before leaving.
I found that my kids learned a lot more when we did lessons full year, but my older daughter lost steam after a while and wanted to take the winter off. We did ski lessons instead, so we did that through the winter and went back to swimming after!
kiwi / 705 posts
We started year-round lessons in March. Both kids have 1 group lesson a week and are have really shown improvement.
My personal experience was that every summer I had 1 week of daily lessons with very little pool time to practice outside of lessons. This was because there weren't many pools outside of country clubs and the indoor YMCA was so heavily clorinated my Mom couldn't bear to take us there. The end result was that I can barely swim. I can dog paddle for short distances and tred water but that's about it.
So for that reason now that we live somewhere we can make year-round lessons work, the kids will take them. Once they are 5 I will switch them to year-round swim team.
honeydew / 7504 posts
D (4yo) just takes them once a year, usually in March/April. He finishes up right before summer, then gets to practice all summer at his uncle's pool and the local township pool. He carries the skills over just fine.
pear / 1521 posts
We just started swim lessons this summer with LO who is almost 2.5. We plan to continue year round but I'm sure we'll take some sessions off. It would never occur to me to stop bc it's cold outside and we live in New England!
I grew up swimming on swim teams on and off starting at age 4 and my older siblings were intense competitive swimmers. I am very grateful now that I can swim well (and can do all strokes, swim for exercise). I definitely want to instill the same in our kids and I wish we'd started lessons earlier!
blogger / kiwi / 626 posts
We do year round and I totally get what you are saying about the cold factor. DH and I alternate the days when we are in the water with our DS, so we only have to deal with the cold every other week. The kids don't seem to mind being cold afterwards, plus we pack warm sweatshirts to cover them once we get dressed and that seems to help warm them up quickly.
I will say that doing year round is nice because, especially for DD, there is no loss of skill between sessions. She just goes onto the new session about two weeks after the prior one ends, and her skill level stays about the same.
wonderful pear / 26210 posts
We did swim lessons for about a year, beginning when my son was 6 months old and he HATED it so I basically decided that since he was not into it, I wasn't going to force it. I am a water baby, I don't remember not knowing how to swim and I don't think I ever had more than a few one on one lessons at a pool during the summer, so there is something to say about natural ability.
My son is 6 now, and he's not able to swim but we're working on it. My view is that of course it would be great if he knew how to swim, but I know plenty of adults that can't and it's not a huge deal. I wish they would practice better water safety, so that's where I focus my efforts with my son right now.
persimmon / 1130 posts
DD1 is in year-round swimming lessons. I definitely like the summer more because we can just plop her in her car seat with her suit still on. During the winter it's a hassle getting all bundled up. But, she loves swimming so we're keeping her on the year-round schedule for now.
coconut / 8472 posts
I think in order to be a good swimmer you do need regular practice, but your son is really little. Right now exposing him to the water will likely keep him accustomed to it, but he won't really learn to do actual swimming for another year or more.
With that said, we do the YMCA in the winter in MA and we survive 
. I keep my hair above water, and DS's hair dries really quickly. We always go to FL in the winter I like DS to get accustomed to the water before we go. We'll do the same thing with DD (1 year next month) before we go on a cruise in February because there will be lots of water and swimming activities.
hostess / papaya / 10219 posts
We are thinking of doing year round starting this year at 4.5 years old.
olive / 70 posts
Does the indoor pool where the lessons are held not have any kind of hair drying area? Both my kids have been in swim lessons since they were each 3 mnths and we go year round.
Our swim school has a hair drying station so we don't have to leave with wet hair. I will admit in the winter months clothing tends to be bulkier so it's a pain and how heavy our pool bag gets with everyone a clothes in it. But both my kids enjoy swimming so I think of it as a necessary nuisance.
Edit: I'm in Michigan where we get pretty cold winters. You definitely don't want to go outside with wet hair!
clementine / 778 posts
DS does swim lessons all year long, and I think the consistency helps. We live in California, so it doesn't get too cold, but he pool is heated and in under one of those tents that can be closed and keeps all the cold out. The walk from the pool to the changing room is the only time it's really cold, and I just wrap him with a towel and carry him.
pear / 1961 posts
We don't do year round because I've found her interest comes and goes, and I don't feel like fighting her to go/participate. We also try to limit how many activities we do, so not doing them year-round gives us other opportunities.
FWIW, we found the biggest gains to be around 4 doing the weeklong accelerated program. Now at 5 she can definitely swim, and it's more just building endurance and refining strokes. So I feel like we can get that through more occasional lessons coupled with swimming on our own (vacations, going to the pool, etc).
honeydew / 7235 posts
We pretty much do year-round swimming.
Its especially fun to do swimming lessons in the winter when it's freezing outside and feels like a treat to get into the heated indoor swimming pool!
nectarine / 2242 posts
All of you that do year round lessons - if your kid is in school/daycare, do you go on a week night or on a weekend? This is something we've wanted to start but the only time we'd be able to make it happen is a week night at like 6:00pm and I wasn't sure if that was crazy!
pomegranate / 3350 posts
I don't know that it's really worthwhile until they are at least 2. We only have done spring and summer lessons so far. I think if we had done them year round my almost 5 year old would be fully independent but he is get there after just 2 weeks. My 3 year old is just not ready and aside from just maintaining comfort with the water, u don't think it would have mattered much this past winter. I definitely don't think it's necessary if they are babies going in with a parent, especially if you don't have a pool at home.
@HappyBaker: there was one session that both of our kids were in parent classes so we did lessons during lunch with DH. After that we did some evening lessons that he attended too. Those actually worked out great because we showered the kids, got them in jammies then right to bed when we got home.
GOLD / wonderful coconut / 33402 posts
@HappyBaker: We had to find a Sat class. Which stinks cause we are having to drive much further but week night doesn't work since my DH travels and the baby goes to bed so early.
persimmon / 1436 posts
@HappyBaker: we have done them weeknight evenings at 5:30 and 6. I prefer the 5:30. We do private lessons because I didn't want to give up my Saturday mornings.
persimmon / 1436 posts
I say do summer swimming for a toddler and go most/all of the year for an older kid. We are in the Midwest, and will do private swim lessons from June-October. LO1 is 5.
wonderful pea / 17279 posts
@Matcha Latte: it might, but the space is so cramped I haven't even taken the time to really look. We are taking lessons at AquaTot and for some reason I was expecting a nice LA Fitness type changing area.
Our Aquatic Center seems to have breaks like some of you are describing. I'm going to check out their facilities.
@ShootingStar: All the paperwork says over and over swimming results not guaranteed. Right now he's having fun playing in the water.
pineapple / 12566 posts
We are moving soon and our new school has a swimming pool. I'm going to sign up my older LO for swim lessons, and it's the whole school year. I don't have to be there.
pomegranate / 3401 posts
My 4 year old just started with lessons and we plan on doing them year round so she can really learn to swim and practice. We go to an indoor facility.
I don't plan on starting my almost 2 year old until she's 3. That's the age they can start semi-private lessons at our place. I'm not into the group lessons/water play.
eggplant / 11861 posts
I'm hoping DD gets good this summer she js going twice a week for 30mins a day so we can still go after summer but maybe 1x a week
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