Splish, splash, baby swim lessons

I am not a great swimmer at all. I like a bit of a splash around on holiday, but nothing more serious than that. However, I have fond memories of my dad taking me swimming at our local pool every Sunday, and both Simon and I think that swimming is a really lovely family activity to do. We also want Isabelle to be confident in the water from an early age, both to enjoy swimming and to be safe in and around water.

With that in mind, we started taking her swimming when she was almost 3 months old. There are loads of swim schools in our local area but, at £14 for a half hour lesson - £140 in total for the 'term' - we decided we would just take her to our local pool ourselves.

Very worried about it being cold, we ordered Isabelle a Splash About Warm In One, which is a fleecy lined wetsuit, so she would be nice and toasty in any pool. The first time we went I was very nervous, but we assumed that she would love it as she really enjoyed splashing about in her bath. Instead, she gave us the most non-chalent face she could muster for half an hour, and couldn't have looked less bothered about the whole affair! But, since she wasn't screaming, we chalked it up to a success and decided we would continue to take her each week - or as much as we could at least. At at just £7.30 for  us to go to our local pool, it was certainly much cheaper than the lessons!

However, a few weeks later I saw a great deal on LivingSocial for 8 swim lessons with a local swim school for just £40. Since that is even cheaper than it would be at our local pool, we decided to snap that offer up, and I'm really glad we did!

Yesterday was our last lesson and I have to say, the lessons were super. We hadn't quite managed to 'dunk' Izzy ourselves, but of course this was something the classes focused on. The main idea of the lessons is to teach small babies what to do if they should fall into the water, and all activities focused on teaching them to float on their back, be confident under water, and move to the edge and grab the bar to stay safe.

Izzy was the youngest in the class, but she did a great job every week. She wasn't worried about being dunked, and generally enjoyed splashing about, singing the songs, having a look at the other babies and playing with all the new toys. I think Simon and I both benefitted from learning a bit more about how to help her become confident in water, and we both know that we need to continue dunking her under and teaching her how to float if we want her to remember the skills she has learnt. So, overall, the lessons were a success. I have to say that we were both really surprised that, after the first week, Simon and I were the only parents who both went into the water with their baby - everyone else had one parent in and one on the side. But, for us, swimming is a family activity, and we want Isabelle to be safe and happy with both of us in the pool.

I think we will maybe take a break from swimming next week, giving us a chance to do something else on a Sunday afternoon, and will maybe only go once every few weeks from now on. But we will continue to take her swimming as often as we can, and help her build up her confidence and skill in the water so she is a little water baby in no time!

After a quick dunking! 

(Simon took the photos one week when he was sick and couldn't join us in the pool.)