What age for swim lessons?

This is one thing that I regret as a mom. We started out too late. My older kids aged 13 and 9 are fond of swimming but did not have a formal lesson/training with it. It could have been the best life skill for them. Imagine kids enjoying the water while developing values such as patience, perseverance, and sportsmanship.

If I could have to do it all over again, I'd definitely give them the best swimming lessons as early as possible. At this point, they are a little fearful to do other swimming techniques or even go to a much deeper part of the pool. It could have been different if we started out early, right. Though my kids enjoy other sports, I think swimming is a very important survival "tool" that kids have at an early age.

But as a mom, I never say never. We started getting lessons recently and although the progress is much slower compared to if we have started out early, I am still happy that they are able to conquer their fear, try something new and go out of their comfort zone.

I have taken my child to infant swim lessons with the hope of improving her skills and self-confidence in the water. She loves the water but despite many lessons, is still reluctant to go under the water to the point that I feel it might not be benefitting her confidence by continuing to attend lessons that expect her to go under.
I think its a very different experience for every child and that they will develop skills and confidence in their own time no matter how young they receive lessons.
I also think its really important to research the swim school that you want to enrol in as some seem to have different philosophies about how to teach children confidence in the water and some of these methods do not fit for every child. The swim school that we have now changed over to is play-based and lets children go at their own pace in terms of development. This makes a huge difference in terms of how far children can progress with their swimming ability.

We live in Australia where swimming is a big part of life so I would say the younger the better. When my oldest child was a baby we started infant water awareness classes and it was a lovely bonding and fun time for us both. When i had more kids, this became difficult as you need to be 1 on 1 with the child in the water and I didn't have a husband who was able to come and help due to his work commitments. This meant that my older children didn't start swimming lessons until they were school-age and they were defiantly more cautious and less confident than my oldest. I think learning to swim is a skill for life and you can begin enjoying the water with your child from babyhood.

As you say, all kids are different. My oldest child was a real water baby and started with "baby swimming" which was really just a class to make kids comfortable in the water at 1 year. The class also included some valuable water safety exercises such as teaching little ones to turn towards the side of the pool in the event of falling in. Actual swimming lessons started at age three and it didn't take long to master the basics.

In comparison my younger child experienced many ear infections in early childhood and so although we tried to start lessons at age three, the result was painful ears and a miserable child and so for several years the pool was a no-go zone. After starting elementary school at age 6, we gave swimming lessons another try and only a handful of lessons were required to become a competent swimmer.

While I don't think formal swimming lessons need to begin at a specific age, I do think that it is very important for kids to be comfortable in the water and to learn enough at an early age to be safe in and around any body of water. Stroke techniques and other skills can be learned at any age.