Toddler Swimming Lessons
Our lessons for toddlers age 14 months to 3 years are a natural progression from baby swimming and carefully designed to balance technique, safety skills, floating, games and songs with an emphasis on having fun!
The path to independent swimming
Our Turtle Tots toddler lessons are a great way to teach your child to swim and will develop your toddler’s water confidence and stroke development, helping them progress to independent swimming. We consolidate the fundamental skills your child has already learnt and introduce new skills too. You’ll see your child’s strength and confidence increasing, as they become more independent.
Play is an essential part of early development and we use songs and games in the lessons, with the emphasis on learning though having fun. Lessons improve balance and co-ordination. They also focus on promoting water confidence and early stroke practices, helping them to progress towards independent swimming. By this time, most children are happily self-submerging multiple times within each lesson and this remains under their control.
During this phase there is a stronger focus on developing aquatic breathing techniques so that younger toddlers learn to exhale as they swim and then surface to breathe. Water safety is of course key to our lessons and we build your child’s ability to assess and make judgements about risk – they will also further develop their knowledge of water safety techniques, enabling them to be as safe as possible around water. Our lessons for younger toddlers are fun-packed and energetic for both toddler and parent! We incorporate themed lessons into our programme to keep lessons feeling fresh and exciting.
Benefits of Toddler Swimming
Frequently Asked Questions
Why teach my toddler to swim?
The Turtle Tots philosophy is to ensure safety and water confidence, encouraging parents to fully utilise the benefits and enjoyment that can have swimming with their children – whether that is at our lessons, on holiday or trips to the pool. We also provide a great social environment for parents and toddlers, giving them the opportunity to meet other families and children, forging friendships for life.
When will my child learn to swim on their own?
The age a child learns to swim independently depends on many factors including ability, confidence, and regularity of swimming.
Introducing children to Turtle Tots from an early age, and continue regular lessons, means that by the age of 3 and a half many children will be swimming short distances independently.
Do lessons include submersions
Swimming underwater is not the main focus of Turtle Tots swimming lessons. Our award-winning swim programme does include natural submersions once your little one is ready. This will be different for every child and our teachers are fully trained to understand when this will be. However, most of our activities take place above the water, with lots of fun and games.
More information about Toddler Swimming
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Clock change … how to manage your little one’s sleep routine
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Time to DITCH THE DISPOSABLE
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MyBump2Baby Podcast
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Summer holiday swimming skills you can practice at home
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Top ten tips for staying safe near the water this summer
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Top 10 questions about baby swimming
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Lily sets her sights on swimming success!
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Celebrating World Down Syndrome Day 2023
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Why teaching water safety skills to children from an early age is important
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Nervous about baby swimming lessons?
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Choosing the right baby and toddler swimming lessons
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Encouraging little ones to be confident & safe in the water this summer
Reviews
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We have been swimming with turtle tots for almost two years and our daughter loves her lessons. Miss Victoria is brilliant with the children. Warm, bubbly, encouraging and her activities each week vary so much which keeps the children highly engaged. I’m looking forward to starting our baby daughter with turtle tots soon!
Holly 
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Excellent fun classes with great teachers. Been bringing my son since he was 4months old (he is now 2years) and he is very confident in the swimming pool. Would highly recommend
Laura -
Lessons are fun & friendly and the instructor Nikki is very engaging with the toddlers! Right mix of activities and fun. Would highly recommend Turtle Tots for swimming lessons.
Zubair -
My son has been swimming with Turtle tots since he was 3 months old. He is now 21 months. Instructor Katie is amazing and has a good relationship with all the children. My son has good confidence in the water and enjoys the songs and exercises.
Tamara -
Tom has been swimming with Cathy in Turtle Tots for over a year, she is an absolute credit to the business and brings something different to every lesson. He isn’t even 2 and can swim with a pool noodle… We are amazed at his progress. Thank you
Claire -
We have been taking our son to turtle tots since he was about 2 weeks old. He’s nearly 2 now and he’s so confident in the pool. He loves it and the teachers are absolutely fantastic. We really recommend TT!
Hazel -
We have been coming to Turtle Tots for over 19 months. My little one absolutely loves Charlie’s lessons. There is so much play and song whilst learning at the same time. His confidence in the water is progressing nicely!
Anna -
My daughter joined Turtle Tots Sandymouth at just 6 months old, when classes restarted after Covid. She is now 2 years old and still absolutely loves Turtle Tots swimming lessons with Charlie! She has learnt so many fantastic swimming techniques and skills since starting, including life saving skills, as well as having lots of fun and enjoying age appropriate activities, songs and water games! Charlie is wonderful with the babies and toddlers and all the children look forward to seeing her each week. My daughter loves working towards achieving her levelled badges which we then sew onto a turtle teddy for her to be proud of. The venue is also great, the pool is clean and warm and we love that there is a soft play and cafe for after the lesson!
I would definitely recommend the quality of sessions you get at Turtle Tots.Amy -
Absolutely loved our lessons. They taught us a lot about what we can do in the pool including water safety. Lots of parents comment about how confident my son is when we go to the pool and that’s majorly down to our TT lessons! Thanks Rebecca and team
Alex -
Rebecca and her team are just fantastic. We have been swimming with Turtle Tots for a year, since our daughter was 6m – she absolutely loves it and we’ve all learnt so much. We would definitely recommend.
Anonymous -
Turtle Tots was an excellent start to our child’s swimming journey. Swimming is such an important life skill, especially for us living so close to the sea. Our instructor Charlie was amazing and nurtured her through each lesson from baby to toddler. I couldn’t get over how quickly her confidence grew in the water and mine to support her. We cannot thank her enough for this.
Roo