Time for your little darling to learn to swim? Before you drag your child down to the local pool you might want to consider my five reasons to choose swim club over swimming lessons.
My credentials: Four years as a swimming lessons mom and 12 Years as a swim club mom.
Five Reasons To Choose Swim Club
1. Cost
Cast your eyes on these beauts.
As a result of reading the life changing decluttering book SoulSpace by Xorin Balbes I recently pawed through my filing cabinet and unearthed these gems. Three Preschool Level Three and three Preschool Level Four report cards. All six belong to my daughter. Not only did they bring back a wealth of horrid mommy memories (“she’ll be in Preschool Three until she’s 17”) but they triggered financial nightmare memories too. Look at them. (I’ve blacked out her name so that you can insert your child’s name). Three times (and probably more – I likely pitched other cards in sheer disbelief) in each level of 10 classes for $75.00. That means it took 30 lessons and cost me $225 to get my girl to the next level.
In our part of the world there are two options for swim club. Summer which is from May to mid August and Winter which runs pretty much year round with a few weeks off in the summer. Olympic swimmers have a Winter background.
We opted for Summer where the average fee was $375.00 for three months of swimming up to seven times a week.
If your swimmer is a natural and blasts through each swimming lesson level you’re blessed. However, if your swimmer is a reluctant fish as mine was it makes more financial sense to go the swim club route.
2. Swim Progress
Ask a swim lesson parent and they’ll probably tell you about the number of times their child stayed at a certain 25 minute lesson level.
Ask any swim club parent and they’ll tell you their child’s swimming improved tremendously. Common observations are they go from dog paddling to swimming multiple lengths of freestyle in one summer. At up to seven (more when they’re older) one and a half hour practises per week they can’t help but improve.
3. Childhood Friendships
Swimming lessons are short in duration. Johnny suits up, jumps in the pool, splashes off the wall and gets out 25 minutes later to dart into the change room. He then zooms home for dinner and some screen time and a little homework and then bed.
Swim club practices are long. Johnny suits up, warms up with 15 minutes of dryland training, jumps in the pool, splashes off the wall and hauls himself out 75 minutes later to giggle and goof off with his good pals in the change room. 30 minutes later (if you’re lucky) he toddles out with his fellow chlorine drenched buddies, shouts out lengthy goodbyes and then heads home for a huge meal and bed or a snooze on the couch.
Summer Swim club swim meets are also long. Held almost every weekend they can run from 6:00 AM warm ups until 4:00 PM finals. As the children can swim up to eight races (including finals) per day there is plenty of time for socializing. In fact it’s all about the socializing. Cards, books, iPads. The end result? Strong, positive friendships.
***Work full time?*** The kids will be begging to spend more time together. You can easily organize carpools. I drove many other kids over the years. It’s doable.
4. Parent Sanity Friendships
Should you choose the swimming lesson route you’ll be lucky if you have time to chat with another parent. 25 minutes zips by, especially at the beginning of the lesson set when you’re rushing around trying to find the right instructor, digging in the swim bag for those missing goggles and then trying to find change for the vending machine for your swimmer’s hungry younger sibling.
I won’t lie. The early morning swim club practices and swim meets are a slog. BUT. The saving grace are the other moms and dads. Some of them drive you bonkers with their competitive nonsense. But the majority are delightful and refreshing. Indeed several of my dearest friends today are ones I commiserated with met through the long hours of waiting through practices and at meets between swims and timing on deck. And I’ve also met new fellow swim club parents through blogging!
Misery loves company.
5. Heightened Awareness Of Time Management
This benefit might surprise you. It certainly did me.
Swimming lessons are flexible. With many different time options being offered by the local pool you can easily fit them into your schedule.
Swim Club is a fixed schedule that has nothing to do with yours. Practices are held early in the morning and a few hours after school. In order to succeed at both swimming and school the swimmer soon learns they have to be very careful with their time. Homework must be done first thing. Bedtime, even in the summer, is early because 05:30 comes quickly. Free time must be chosen wisely. Screen time is welcome as it’s very short and carefully chosen.
5 B) Your Child Is a Natural Future Swim Lesson Instructor
Your swim club children are top of the list for hiring. They’ve learned to swim properly, they’ve flown through the prerequisite courses and they understand the value of knowing how to swim. Yes, even Miss Repeat The Levels Multiple Times is a succesful swim lesson teacher.
This post was inspired by the Finish The Sentence Friday prompt of “I Can’t Believe How Much It Costs To … “As always, our host is Kristi . Today’s guest hosts are Anna, Kerri, Allie and me.
Enough about me and my five reasons to choose swim club. I’m curious about you. Is being able to swim important to you or would you rather watch it from your couch? Can your kids swim? How’d they learn? If you’d care to share, I’d love to hear.
38 Responses
Okay – I totally agree with you. But I have a question – what if your child can’t swim at all?!?!?! My youngest hast been through three cycles of swim lessons – and nothing. I’m now looking for a private instructor – because I’m panicking (he’s getting up there). I can’t really put him on swim team (which I’m guessing is the most comparable here to swim club) if he can’t swim.
Off topic – I read SoulSpace and the Japanese Tidying book – I loved them both@! Definite game changers. Will write about my experience soon. Thank you so much for the recommendations.
I vote for the private instructor route Allie. My son’s friend couldn’t swim and he kept failing in the lessons. Got to the point where he refused to get in the water. So his mom signed him up for privates and he hasn’t looked back. My daughter also highly recommends them. So glad you got both the books. Aren’t they great? Looking forward to reading your take. Very cool.
Do you tutor for swim lessons? We’ve tried everything with Abby and she is still a minnow. Talk about costs! Bridget is in a challenged youth swim. Which is great except she seems to just be having fun in the pool and not really learning to swim. So I’m serious about the tutoring, maybe a 2 for 1 special?
Hahaha! My daughter is the one to ask. I’m sure she’d go for a 2 for 1. She’s working at the campus pool – both guarding and coaching. A little extra cash would come in handy.
I think I told you recently that I freaked out when my son couldn’t paddle to the edge of the pool wearing a life jacket… and so that very day, I signed him up for lessons. $225/month for 30 minutes once a week… less when they are 4 kids to one teacher but as a swimmer myself, I just had to??? YIkes though and I just want my boy to be as into it as your kids are!!!
Yikes. I do remember that story. I completely understand why you paid the big bucks though. It’s a necessary skill. I’d have done the same.
I think swimming is one of the greatest gifts we can give our kids. It makes them strong and healthy, and I never met a swim kid I didn’t like! I wish I would have signed my son up for swim club years ago.
So true Lana! Swim kids are lovely people and they have their priorities straight, don’t they?
I come from a swimming family (including that crack-of-dawn madness), married into a swimming family (my husband and his brother still race each other whenever and wherever we get together), and have four kids who love nothing more than to be in water. While they have all had countless swimming lessons, I’ve come to appreciate the value of just letting them BE in the pool. My youngest has had the least amount of formal instruction and is probably the best swimmer of them all.
Thanks for hosting FTSF this week, Kelly!
Oh this is just so refreshing! Love that you all swim. And yes – that you get the crack-of-dawn madness aspect. I can also just picture your husband and his brother racing each other whenever and wherever. Too funny. Sibling rivalry NEVER ends.
We keep trying to get our oldest son to go out for the high school swim team but he doesn’t want to commit to all the time involved. And, he isn’t really into competition – I just want him to do if for the team camaraderie.
Oh Kim I hear ya. It’s so hard. You know he’d love it – especially the camaraderie – if he’d only try. You’re lucky your school has a team. Ours didn’t. Well they did for about two weeks every year when the highschool meet was approaching but it was really sad. The same 3 kids tried out each year. Not even enough for a relay.
My son did many many many swim lessons between age four and six. It was important to me that he learn how to swim. He scared my dad when he was four by being so excited to go to the pool that he just went and jumped in before my dad was ready. Though if he had stood up he would have realized his head was above the water and he would have been fine. He dramatically recalls the time that he almost drowned and granddaddy jumped in and saved him. Anyway so after that I did get him into swimming lessons. And he because good at it. He did stay at one level for quite awhile but them just when the instructor said he was ready for the swim team he said, “Mom, I don’t think I can like swimming anymore.” And pretty much like Forrest Gump when he said he was done running, that was it. All that money. Sigh. Don’t even get me started on how much football costs. That’s a-whole-nother-post.
Oh man it can be so frustrating sometimes can’t it. But you can’t force them. Best of luck with the football!
I signed my darling daughter up for swim lessons at age 3. Have I told you this story already? This is how it went. We arrived the first day, the teacher beckoned all the students into the water and sent the parents to benches the other side of the fence from which to watch the action. Darling daughter was in the pool for approximately 3 minutes before climbing out, spreading out her beach towel on the pool deck then watching the rest of the class in her best bathing beauty pose. After class she told me that she thought I could do a better job of teaching her to swim than the actual, qualified instructor.
Nooooooo. Grinning with laughter here Mo. That is absolutely classic. Oh now she gets to have the fun as the mom on the pool deck. Wonder how her children will be?
oh boy! I wrote about costs of bringing up a child, and I am sure the USDA did not take into consideration the lessons/classes we have to take to these kids to…
I enrolled my kid when he was 4 since the proverb that the younger the better…and all they did was high fives while my heart would skip a beat since each class would be $39 bucks!
Anyhow…fast forward…we changed many swim schools for him to learn, and now he is in pre-comp…phew!
Oh I hear you Ruchira. My daughter would stand on the pool and chant “Put your right hand in, ya put your left hand in and you shake it all about …” then do a few bobs and before I knew it, it was time to leave.
Thouht of the time I threw your sister into the large university pool when she least expected it, having arranged with the guard to be in place to catch her. Paid forty dollars for the lesson and I was darned if I was going to let her spend the hour fixedly on the long bench, shaking her head vigorously. Thank god she decided she liked the water after all – you don’t drown if you put your head under! – we don’t have an Olympic swimmer here even now, but she does have her own pool and does lengths on the nice days! Mom.
I know Mom. I thought of you as I wrote this. You’d never get away with a toss in today.
Okay, so you’ve got me sold. I’ll investigate swim club. Not sure if they have something like that around us, but I’ll keep my eyes open! Glad that your kids had such a positive experience!
Yes, I hope they do Anna. It really is a wonderful experience. If your kids don’t like it you can pull them out next year or whenever and they’ll have least have advanced beyond “bobs.”
Great post ! I admire you for all of those early mornings and long weekends.My girls were both forced into learning to swim, and were rather reluctant swimmers. Thankfully soccer was their thing and no early mornings required !
I too am delighted that my guys signed on for soccer as well. Otherwise I’d never have met my great pal Jane.
We’re venturing in to swimming lessons this summer. Dreading the expense but I think it’s so important to learn to be safe in the water.
It is such a necessary life skill. Good luck on your swimming journey. May your swimmer(s) take to it like natural fishy darlings!
Numbers 3 and 4 really appeal to me (yes please to 6am-4pm during the summer), but in all seriousness, Kelly, I feel like we’re falling a bit behind on the whole swimming thing (club or lessons). With Ben we’ve tried twice, once when he was a baby, then when he was a three-year-old. He had never taken to swimming and I wonder what is the right approach. Not asking you to solve this for me just thinking out loud 🙂
It was just the same with my daughter, Katia. Had I not managed to finally get her into a swimming lesson with two of her pals (also reluctant swimmers) I think we’d still be struggling. This was when she was 5. That really helped. Before that? It was painful. Truly painful.
I finally got time to read this post – and I totally agree with you Kelly! We signed my daughter up for swim team at age 7 – thinking it would be a glorified swim lesson and didn’t look beyond that season. Now, 14 years later she is in her second year of college swimming; and doing a little coaching, teaching a few lessons, and writing articles for swimming world! I’d say we got our money’s worth!
You sure did! Just read your amazing post about the broken goggles and I am sharing it everywhere. Amazing. Our children continue to teach us, don’t they?
Thanks for the shares, Kelly! I really appreciate it. And I enjoy how much we have in common!
My pleasure Susan. I know – we do have a lot in common. Even if we do pronounce “scones” differently …
Somehow we’ve managed to get to age 6 and have not learned to swim. Totally the parents fault here – ugh. So now we really have to do it. Swim club…swim lessons. I had no idea there was a distinction. So I’ll be looking into this for Kidzilla this summer, and she’s already fighting it. I also blame myself for that. Hopefully, we can find a way to get her interested. Any suggestions? Send ’em my way. Seriously.
And this book? The decluttering one? I need to get that.
Yes! Try and get her to take the lessons with a pal who also has not learned to swim Made a huge, huge difference with my daughter. Truly. Huge. Or you could put her into privates but that sometimes doesn’t work as the instructor spends a good portion of the lesson just trying to get the swimmer into the water.
And yes – go get the decluttering books. They are great.
Kelly, this is all great info – thanks. I feel well armed to find a good option for her this year.
I have the decluttering books written on a list to pick up online or at the bookstore. Now, if I could just locate the list…
Sounds just like me Lisa. Odd how those lists go wandering off …
I know, right?
Right!