Swim Lessons for Toddlers

We enrolled Landon in a "Mommy/Daddy & Me" swim class that lasts for 8 weeks. We're about halfway through and I wanted to share what the class is all about and my thoughts.

First, Jeff goes in the water with Landon. I'm a good swimmer (I did swim team in middle school and have always loved the water) but I do pretty much all of Landon's classes with him and Jeff really wanted to do this one with him. That's a win for me because I had no desire to swim once a week haha! We go every Sunday morning (I sit on the sidelines and then take care of Landon after class so Jeff can dry himself off and all of that) and class is a half hour. Basically the parents kick their child's legs in the water, lightly dunk the back of their heads, swim them the length of the pool, get the kid's face wet, splash with them a bit, play with a few toys, put floaties on them and "float" in the water, etc. Some kids really hate the class and cry the whole time, while other kids love it.

We're lucky that Landon is a kid who loves the water. He's always loved his bath and we figured he'd like swim lessons too even though a pool is much bigger than our bathtub. Landon is so chill about the whole thing and will let Jeff or the swim instructor do anything to him and he's fine. The vast majority of class he's smiling and having a great time :)

So do we plan on doing more swim lessons in the future? Absolutely, but we're not going to do them continuously at this age. Landon is very comfortable in the water, so we don't have to worry about that. We want him to learn to swim at a young age, but he isn't old enough to do tooooooo much yet. We will definitely do this again when he's a bit older, probably next summer at age 2. We want a strong swimmer and water safety is so important to us. I think it's worth trying with your toddler, especially if they're fearful of water. It could make class a bit hard if your child cries, but I personally feel that being comfortable in the water is so, so important and more exposure to it will make someone more comfortable. It's also fun and gets you out of the house, so why not give it a try?