Many parents see the price tag associated with private lessons and shy away from that opportunity because group lessons are usually more cost effective, especially for families with multiple children.
If you are looking for a group class environment due to cost, we can promise you that you will spend more money on repetitive group classes summer after summer because the majority of children under the age of 6 don't do well in an aquatic group environment.
What is drastically more important is the environment you put your child in to learn a life saving skill like swimming. Often, children associate a negative experience in a group environment with trauma, new fears, and skill resistance in aquatic spaces.
What Do We Mean By That?
Children feed off of each others energy in group settings. If you have one child excited about swim lessons and another that is the same age that has fears and resists every skill the child excited about swim lessons becomes fearful of trying new skills. The child that came to class with fears has alerted the child that doesn't that there is something be be afraid of. When it's the child's turn that was originally excited about class to try the new skill, they now resist and tend to make slow progress or no progress at all. This environment creates regression. We get asked all the time about group classes and explain this dynamic that they create.
Let's break down what a quality group environment looks like:
Twins & Triplets:
If you have twins or triplets, they are the same age and generally come with the same swimming background. In this situation, a group environment where the children know each other well and all have almost identical backgrounds around water, a family group for triplets or semi-private lessons for twins is generally good choice unless they have major fears around water.
Children After Kindergarten:
When a child is 5-6 years old, they have likely had some swim lesson experience or have an understanding of basic swimming skills. They are usually well equipped to be in a group setting after they have completed Kindergarten. At this age, children are used to taking turns, listening, and doing skills independently from their parents in a school setting. They generally have more confidence and are in a routine of instructional learning. This promotes quality instruction and is generally a great choice for that age group and up.
Parent & Me Classes For Children Under The Age of 2:
We love having a group of friends get together for a social class like this. It's great for children this age to interact with each other just as much as it is for parents who are in the same phases of life. Our classes our self grouped so you would have to gather your group and register together but this is an excellent group environment and is fun for everyone involved to grow together!
Here at Streamline Teams, we strive to offer your family the absolute best quality instruction. More often than not, it translates to a private lesson environment. If you have any questions or want to walk through your individual situation, we are more than happy to walk through all of your questions! We can't wait to swim with your family soon!