This summer I thought it would be fun to enroll our Little Piñata in a fun toddler class or two. I looked into all kinds of classes, and since most classes (like dance and gymnastics) are open to kids 2 years old and older, my two choices ended up being music and swimming. After asking around for advice and being unable to decide, we bought an 8 week session of music class and just a one month session of “Parent and Tot” swimming lessons. I went in not knowing what to expect, although most people thought that Little Piñata would enjoy swimming classes best.
I was actually really surprised that we found the opposite to be true! After the first month, Little Piñata has gotten SO much out of music class, but we have found the swimming lessons to be a waste of both time and money. Now, I don’t think this will be the case with all swim lessons and music classes everywhere, but it’s true with the particular ones we found near us.
Getting Ready for his last swimming lesson!
The swim lessons were at the local rec Center, and I think the biggest problem was that even though the Parent & Tot lessons were advertised for kids 6 months and up, they were really geared toward children over 2 years old. They assumed that all the kids could kick and blow bubbles on command. Since Little Piñata is just 13 months, these were skills he was definitely not ready for. He may be ready to learn how to kick, but he’s certainly not ready to be able to blow bubbles in the water or kick on command without much teaching. It also seemed quite developmentally inappropriate in that there was practically no repetition from class to class. In the first lesson they “taught” the kids to kick their legs while floating on their back. But, by the second lesson they assumed the children had mastered it and moved on to more complicated skills! So, by the third lesson I just had to continue doing “first lesson material” with Little Piñata” while the teacher was telling me to “be sure that he makes his hands like ice cream scoops when he’s paddling.” I actually just wanted to laugh at this. Little Piñata has NO idea what an ice cream scoop is! I think there are much better swim programs out there for toddlers. We just didn’t find it.
All done and ready to go home!
On the other hand, the music classes have been awesome! There are children from all ages in there, from 9 months up to 4 years and they all have so much fun. They sing songs, move around to the music and play with fun instruments, like drums, maracas, little bells, etc. We have a CD of all the songs they use in the 8 week session and Little Piñata even loves listening to it in the car and tries to sing along with his favorite songs. There’s an activity both on the CD and that’s done in the class where the students try to match the pitch of the teacher, and after just 4 weeks of class, Little Piñata is already attempting it and doing a pretty good job! If you’re interested, he’s been taking from “The Music Class” which is a national program, so you can visit their website and there might even be a location near you.
If I were to choose classes for him in the future, I think I will do more research and ask more questions before signing him up for anything. Here are some suggestions before committing to a month or two of toddler/child classes:
1. Ask friends in the community about the specific class you’re interested in. So many people recommended swimming classes to us, but we never had any personal recommendations for the Rec Center where we ended up taking him. I think this was the main problem.
2. If you can’t find people that have gone to the place you’re looking, ask them for references or if you can try out a class for free before you pay for a whole session.
3. Call and ask the location about the particular skills that they will be teaching and at what age they are developmentally appropriate for. (If they don’t know the answer, they’re likely not familiar with early childhood development, which isn’t a good sign.)
4. Ask about their rescheduling and cancellation policy. When Little Piñata had a cold one week, we were able to reschedule the music class, but just lost out on the swim lesson.
5. Try a free class if you can! This will help immensely to know if it’s the right situation for your child. (The Rec Center didn’t offer a free lesson and maybe I should have taken this as an indication to not sign up there.)
What kind of classes have your little ones been involved in? Did they enjoy them?
Children’s Classes part 4 of 4
1. Swim Lessons by Mrs. Cake2. Top 10 Tips for Swimming with Your Little One by Mrs. Tea
3. Time to swim! by Mrs. Hopscotch
4. Music Class vs. Swimming Lessons by Mrs. Pinata
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22276 posts
LO goes to music class every week and she gets a lot out of it as well. The teachers have a lot of knowledge so it makes it feel like it’s worth the cost.
squash / 13764 posts
We also do music class and LO loves it. We’re doing swimming class as well, but ours is much more age appropriate than it sounds like yours was–it’s basically to get them comfortable in the water.
cherry / 119 posts
the pictures of him at swim class are super cute though!! so far my 19 mo is taking gymnastics and music. online the gymnastics class says 2 yo, but my friend told me she knew multiple moms who had babies <2 signed up, so i went for it. my LO loves the class, but i wouldn't have taken her any earlier. she loves to jump on the trampolines, hang on the swings, can get into position to roll and do handstands, and loves walking on the balance beam (all with assistance). i think the music class we go to is very similar to yours too. the first class went really well, but by the second class she seemed to get bored quicker, and ended up running around the circle with another toddler for the majority of the class. hopefully, this week is better! we're going to try a 4 week swim class in august. hopefully it will be a good experience!
pomegranate / 3516 posts
We’re going to try swim classes in the fall but I’ve heard great things about the class near us.
LO currently goes to music class every week and she loves it! I’ve seen such a change in her and she seems to be learning and having fun too!
pear / 1837 posts
My 11 month old LOVES music class! We go weekly and have been since she was about 7 months old. We also did swim lessons for babies at our YMCA- it was a waste of money! No lesson plan, the instructor wasn’t great, she didn’t “learn” anything. I’d say if you want to do swim lessons, get a referral from someone you trust.
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
We did both too and I agree that LO got a lot more out of music class. However, the water familiarity was our primary purpose for going to swimming lessons all winter, so it definitely served its purpose. In the fall we’re going to do both since he’s now old enough for actual instruction (one level above water babies, which is for 6-18m ). Our music lessons are through the county, but are the national program “Music Together”. It’s an AWESOME program if anyone is considering it!
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
I’m so glad to hear so many others have good experiences with music classes! I KNOW there are good swimming classes out there, but they must be harder to find!
@MRSVIVIAN- I love that your LO is doing gymnastics! We would love to get DS into that as well when he’s old enough. So good for flexibility, strength, coordination, the whole mix!
I agree @LulaBee. We won’t do swimming again unless we get a good recommendation.
@Mrs. Stroller- “Music Together” looks great too! We went with “The Music Class” since it was closer and the class times worked better with DS’s nap schedule.
squash / 13764 posts
@Mrs. Stroller: that’s the music class we do too!
pomelo / 5866 posts
We are in the midst of swim class @ 2 years old and it’s going pretty good. Some of the swim stuff LO doesn’t do, I file it in my brain for free water play activities at the pool. I feel like the instructor goes through a bunch of different things so we have a variety of techniques and tools to play with on our own water exploration. We did music/play lessons from 12 months-24 months and that was a huge hit. I think the age has a lot to do with it.
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
@808Love- I think you’re right! Age is a very important part!
blogger / nectarine / 2010 posts
He is SUCH a cutie!!
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
We had a similar experience with our classes… music was a hit, swim was not. One of our favorite things to do at this age was to go to “Open Play” at the local gymnastics school. You paid as you went and that helped take some of the pressure off of me as a new mama – no commitments! It was great for all sorts of physical development. (As well as intellectual and social.)
blogger / pear / 1563 posts
@Mrs. Paintbrush – That “open play” sounds like such a great idea! I hope to find something like that in our area!