I talk to the very nice teacher. Tell her ds2 is deaf in one ear and has to wear ear plugs so might not be able to hear her very well. I ALSO tell her that he has never been swimming before in his life (other than me holding him up in the pool once with arm bands on).

So she lines them all up and tells them one at a time to jump in and swim to the other side. The first two (who have obviously had class before) don't sink to the bottom of the pool and half swim over.

I'm sitting there saying to myself she is NOT going to have ds2 do that with no flotation aid as I just told her he can't swim.

right?

Sure enough the poor kid jumps in and feckin SINKS! His arms are flaying and he's obviously panicking and I'm ready to jump in and she goes over and lifts him out



And I'm sitting there saying to myself omfg you idiot that has got to be 100% guaranteed to frighten the life out of any potential swimmer ever.

urgh.

But he seemed to be ok. He didn't cry or anything. poor thing

so this is normal then?

Normal for Kerry, maybe?
No, a somewhat outdated, shall we say, method of instruction IME.

Not normal at my DS's school. All the children, swimmers and non-swimmers, had to wear arm floats for their first lesson. Only after they'd been assessed individually were those that could swim allowed to swim without floats.

Agree that it wouldn't be a good way to instil confidence in the water. I dread to think how nervous children would react.

No, not normal. DS had been having lessons for about a year before they got to the jumping in stage. You need a new teacher.

DTDs teacher went about half as far and it shocked us. poor DS. She was an old biddy (well not quite that old but at least twice the age of the nextyoungest instructor and probably 3 times the age of most). Obviously old school

She spent 15m trying to teach them, getting no-where (I was going to say nowhere fast but TBH they got no-where at all).

Then we changed instructors...the next one was FAB. Had them swimming within a term.

Give her a couple of weeks, maybe. Change instructors next term if you can if you don't feel that her methods suit your DS.

ds1 had his first swimming lesson last week - he is 3.5 you don't say how old your child is?
I had a wonderful half hour watching him and 3 others the same age with arm floats, a woggle each and the teacher teasing them in such a funny way so that they hardly notice that its actually a swimming lesson just a fun time in the water.
So I would say no, what you experienced doesn't seem normal round here!

(can I just mention that the teacher said ds is a natural in the water [proud mummy emoticon])

Our 'non-swimmers' class starts with learning how to climb up, turn round, and come down the steps into the water. There are maximum of 10 children in the class, 2 assistants in the water (1-1 for special needs) and the instructor on dry land. They then do things like walk across the width of the pool, jump across like kangaroos, walk backwards and then dip their faces to blow bubbles. It's all fun & games style.

They then move onto kicking their legs whilst having a float under each arm. And by 3rd or 4th lesson they learn to sit on edge of pool and lower themselves into the water. And so it progresses. They move up to the 'beginners' class when they can put their face in the water and kick with arms stretched out in front of them for about 5 metres. This follows the Amateur Swimming Association curriculum.

Your swimming teacher is not suitable.

this is at the sports centre. You don't sign up for teachers you sign up for time slots and you never know which teachers are going to be teaching the class you sign up for until the day (I remember this from when ds1 went through).

Nork that sounds so fantastic.

I was so that she did that.

Usually there are two teachers in the class and she apologized for there only being one today. So maybe she would normally take the more advanced kids? There were a bunch that didn't do more than walk across the pool. I kept telling ds2 how brave he was and he said he thought he was going to drown! This AFTER ds1 said to me (in front of ds2) just before the lesson "what if ds2 drowns?"

AAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH.

flibberty - that's great!

oh he's 6 next month and there are 8 in the class iirc.

Have you booked a course? Or is it pay as you go each week?

4 week course. Mondays and Wednesdays.

He says he loved the class though so maybe it will be okay.

But if she ever does that again I will deck her.

If he's not bothered hopefully it will be alright next time! At least it's not a whole term, if you decide she's too awful to go on with.

The teacher ds had last term, actually got out of the water, picked up and jumped in with 2 children who refused to jump .

Funnily enough she appears to no longer be there.

kerrymum hold on to the fact he loved the class, can completely understand how you felt though. Today will probably stand out as a memory for you both for years to come!

she asked him to jump, she didn't push him

he jumped with great confidence

he was under water and she scooped him out

he didn't drown

he really enjoyed it and wasn't put off

do you think maybe she might have known what she was doing?

twig. he was completely and utterly freaked when he came up.

And he told me afterwards that he thought he was going to drown

I don't want my kid to EVER feel like he was going to drown.

lol

he keeps asking me "mummy was I ever so brave?"

awww.

Sounds a bit odd to me. We did aquatots/baby swimming, so don't have persona experience of other teaching methods. However, we go swimming regularly at the local pool and they all seem to start off with woggles.

I would be asking the teacher (in a non-confrontational way) more about her teaching methods and how she got children swimming. Maybe she just wanted to establish what level the children were at. However, there must be more to her method than asking the children to swim to the other side - I mean you could do that for the price of your entrance ticket!

Can I just establish - was he jumping in out of his depth? At our centre a six year old would be able to stand in the teaching pool. And I would be pointing this out to my child to reassure him that he can always stand up and therefore not drown. On this basis I suppose it would not be unreasonable to be asked to jump in.

If he was out of his depth though without floats on what was known to be his first time in the water and asked to jump in and swim I would be horrified and would not hesitate to speak to the teacher about it - depending on the response I might even take it further.

Not sure.
Ds(4.8) had his first swimming lesson last week. Our are very similar to DucheessNork - learn how to go down steps into pool. Whipped off his own swimming vest within minutes and was just splashing around.

So long as he was not frightened, I suppose there is not an issue here.

no it was in the kiddie pool and he could have stood up but he said he just did what the teacher told him (he's so EAGER to swim) and panicked. I think she should have known better that a child with no experience would have sunk like that.

6 is quite late to start swimming imo. Why didn't you get himm going earlier, then he would have no fear? Take him lots yourself to back up the lessons.

Okay well it wasnt ideal I agree but if he could stand I would talk to him about it for the future and explain that if he gets into any difficulties he can just stand up and he should always do that etc. I guess as I said above, on that basis I would put it down to experience. I hope the lessons improve!

bamboo - he HAD NO FEAR. He just dove in like teacher told him to. He was very eager to learn.

I haven't started him earlier because he is deaf in one ear and was waiting for him to get fitted for ear plugs (audiologist wants him to wear them to stop infection he may pick up in pool and protect hearing he does have) also he just recently started showing interest.

I see, sorry. Try to allow your worries to pass to him so he can continue to enjoy his lessons.

it was a training pool?

oh Kerrymum .. do get a grip

oh come on twig. His very first experience of swimming is sinking underneath the water with a mouth and nose full of water (it was around 4 foot deep i think). He didn't open his eyes despite having goggles on as he panicked. And he couldn't get himself upright again.

I mean I can understand if he'd been swimming before and knew what to expect and all but he's never even had his face in water before.

Regardless of what you think of the swimming lessons I think the best way to get a child to swim is to just take them swimming lots -getting used to the feel of being underwater, diving for sinker toys, getting a feeling of their own buoyancy, just messing around. If you are confident about the earplugs, but not confident about the teacher, how about just taking him to play at the pool? Of course they need swimming lessons to become proficient swimmers, but I think it has to be built on having lots of fun in the water.

Sounds very much like DD1's first ever lesson. I aged about ten years watching her. But to be honest, she wasn't bothered, and the following week I was much more relaxed.

Unless your son is freaked out, try and relax. But keep an eye on things and make sure he's happy.

well it went much better tonight. phew. there were two teachers though ds2's teacher had most of the kids.

No more jumping in and swimming either. They used those snakey things.

Have to say that if my ds was on the side of a pool for his first swimming lesson without anyone in the water to hold him or a flotation device I wouldn't have left his side until I'd clarified exactly what the teacher was intending. Until 3 I was in the water with him. Once he got to 3 he went in the water with armbands and a woggle (snaky device). Think you are exceptionally lucky it didn't freak your ds so much that he wouldn't get back in the pool.

How can you sink if you are in water shallow enough to stand up, exactly?

he was trying to swim. He didn't know to stand up.

Wtf is your point?

kerrymum, I would have been shocked at a first swimming lesson if my DD had been told to just jump in

Normally they will have a float on and be taught how to get into the water correctly and in a safe way