hi all,

i'm looking for swimming lessons for rich and lucas,

just wondered if anyone used a baby swimming class and how much you paid?

i fancy doing it with lucas as it will get us out the house once a week and rich will enjoy the lessons, he has lessons at school but they finish this term.

but of course money is tight and wondered if it would be cheaper just to take lucas myself in the week and concentrate on rich for now till i go back to work :-(

your local swimming pool should have a mothers and babies/toddlers group and its reduced rate usually at a quiet period in the week
rich swimming lesson would be after school or saturday morning ? , we paid something like 22 pound for a term , test included
rich has been swimming in school ? , maybe take him for a swimming induction ( ours was free ), you might get a shock and he is bumped up a group or 2 rather than starting at lowest level , saving you some pennies throughout the year ?

I never bothered with swim lessons for me and Immi, it was something i wanted to do but it seemed so expensive. I think I got quoted something like £80 for 12week course. Dont know if thats a lot to you but it seemed pricey for me. I just took her when I wanted to, also meant if she wasnt up to it on the day i planned I wasnt losing money.

i don't know anything really about older kids lessons sorry

We just take Jamie swimming. All the baby ones round here were around £135 for a block of 10. I asked my sister who did baby lessons with one but not the other and she said she only thinks they're worth it if they're scared of the water so we're going to wait until his about 18 months to start lessons. Don't know about bigger kids though

When I did baby classes with Seb we paid £68 for a term of 10 lessons (private pool, group of about . I also do a class at the local pool that you don't prebook which is £4 a session (they sell up to 25 tickets, the changing room is jammed with prams!).

If you are confident in the water yourself then I don't see the need for a baby class but when looking at prices consider what it would cost to go to your local pool, it is £4.80 per adult peak time at ours, so that would be nearly £50 to go 10 times which makes an extra £20 or so for an instructor and a small group not look too bad. (I stopped lessons when I went back to work as they only ran on the days I was working.)

We didnt do lessons but 4 mornings a week our local pool has a parent and under 5's session in the smaller pool.

It cost me about £3 to go and Caitlin was free. They throw in balls and a few floats (you can hire out a baby swim seat) and you just splash/bounce about in the water with them. I liked it because you can go at babys pace when getting them used to water, I didnt feel as self concious in a swimsuit as there is new mums there and lots of shapes and sizes, like shell said if Lucas getting jabs etc you can skip a week and arent wasting money and also I suppose its a chance to make new friends - though I didnt.

The only prob for you is I dont know if Rich will be in a Summer club? I dont think he would be allowed in the parent/toddler swim at my pool and you maybe wouldnt want him off on his own in another area. Iv no clue what prices swim lessons are now but I think my friend was paying £8-10 for a 45 min session a few years ago. They are so expensive!

thanks ladies, i got a quote of £120 for lucas and i just think thats expensive, but it was a case of me wanting to meet other moms too.

i'm going to have a look see if they do any mother and baby swim sessions, so i can go at his pace and mine,

as for rich, he doesnt do any othe rclubs and was thinking if i could get lessons after school one night that would be his thing to do, make him feel a bit special, he loves swimming.

looks like a trip to local baths over the next week.

i also found he gets free swimming too, so thats us sorted for one activiity in the holidays per week, just another 4 to find

I took Alfie to swimbabes which was great but it cost £100 for a term of about 10 weeks so was really expensive.
I started to take him to the ones at my local pool which was about £3 a session so alot cheaper and you only have to pay when you go, whereas the swimbabes you had to pay the whole fee upfront, so even if he was sick and didn't go i still paid for it!