squidkid.

Everyone wants to start their child learning to swim early. I think there is nothing wrong with that. I say bring your 6-month old infant into the water. Do water play in the bathtub at age 1. Go swimming together at 2. Take lessons at age 3.

But if you or your child are not ready to learn how to swim until age 5, for whatever reasons, that’s perfectly fine. In fact, if you wait until age 5 to start lessons, you will most likely pay the least amount of money to get your child safely waterproofed. If you didn’t read my January post titled, The Pros & Cons of Starting Your Child Swimming Early, Part 1, you should. It discusses how until your child reaches 7 to 8 years of age, they aren’t really ready to have the pool keys (meaning full-blown, turn-your-back, water independence).

The reason you will pay the least amount of money to get your child swimming is because at 5 years of age, they are very ripe for learning how to swim (despite what they tell you). I have taught many 5 year olds to swim in the very first lesson. You’ll pay less because I don’t have to spend a lot of time trying to convince them to do something they don’t want to do. I don’t have to use a lot of 3 or 4 year old tactics.

This is because at 5, a child is able to rationalize what you are saying. They can control their emotions (fear) better. They are physically stronger. They are more independent. They can comprehend peer or sibling pressure, and it means something to them.

They know about swimming. They have seen it. They have probably even had swim lessons of some kind already. I know you’ve tried to talk about it one billion times.

A lot of people in my swim community would be surprised to know I didn’t learn to swim by myself until I was about 7 years of age. When I was mentally ready to swim, I just physically did it. Haven’t you ever heard of the term Late Bloomers? I was just born that way. I do all major life experiences at a later age than what’s “expected” in our society. I went away to college later, I have younger friends, I’ll get married later.

No matter if your child can do what is “expected” at his/her age in the water, or is exceptional at his/her age in the water, it doesn’t change the answer (or age number) to which you’d be comfortable turning your back on them in the water. Like I said, I wouldn’t leave the pool area or let my kid go to a pool party without my attendance until they were a strong 7, or finally 8 years of age.

So if you have to wait until 5 years of age to start lessons, what difference does it make? They will learn to swim double-time with a smaller amount of lessons, and be right where they need to be for their age when it comes to Total Water Safety.