Hi Lori,

It depends what you mean by "swimming lessons". If you want your child to get used to being in/ around water, and you want to be with him/her to encourage or comfort him/ her, then I would recommend just going to parent & tot recreational swim sessions at a community centre. If you are not sure/ comfortable with how to hold your child, then the Parent & Tot 'classes' offered through the city/ community centre is cheap and adequate (though your child will not really learn anything about independent swimming). We did this with our DD when she was much younger (12- 18 months) as we wanted to be in the water with her for her first time swimming.

If you're looking for actual swim lessons i.e. your child learns how to swim on their own, then I'd say go to a swim school. It will be more expensive, but (presumably) worth it. We are going to wait until our DD is a little older to send her to 'private' swim lessons. We still do parent & tot recreational swims on the weekends, and for now, she does go to independent swim classes with the City as organized through her daycare (which is located in a community centre). We don't expect her to learn how to swim on her own at this young age, but at $40 for 8 weeks we decided to send her anyway as she does enjoy the change to her usual daycare routine :)

In terms of the City/ community centre swim lessons, they are subsidized and a lot more affordable but they do fill up really fast. The Spring/ Summer sessions will be open for booking for City of Vaughan on February 28. The Recreation Guide is online at http://www.vaughan.ca/culture_recreation/recreation_programs/index.cfm

DD's first swim was at Garnet at 4 months in Parent & Tot 1. It was great - the ratio is meant to be 1:10, but there were only two people signed up so there was much more personal attention :) We chose Garnet since that pool is one of the warmer ones.

DD's current swim classes are technically the "Preschool 1" level with ratio of 1:4 teacher:child. The class descriptions/ levels are in the Recreation Guide. I'm not too worried about her safety - she's very familiar with the pool since this is where we take her for Parent & Tot swim on the weekends, and she's been in the water enough to know her limits. It's in the small shallow pool at North Thornhill CC, and when they do venture to the deeper side, the teachers put the PFDs on the kids. I am actually amazed at how well behaved and cooperative all the kids are during these lessons! There's usually 5 teachers/ groups with 4-5 kids per teacher, plus the Deck Supervisor/ Lifeguard.

DD's classes are first thing in the morning (once a week), so I usually stay and watch from outside the windows. I leave when the class ends and the daycare teacher showers the kids (to wash off the chlorine) and gets them dressed and back in daycare for the rest of the day.

Also, there's a previous thread on swimming here, though with much of the same information as this one - http://www.lifewithababy.com/Anything_&_Everything_Else?mode=MessageList&eid=385318&tpg=4

She's at the North Thornhill Children's Centre, which is part of the Upper Canada Childcare group. The daycare is in the North Thornhill Community Centre in Thornhill Woods, and they take from 18 months up to 5 years (kindergarten). She'll be 3 in a month's time.