swimming lessons

We have always put the kids in swimming lessons when they turned 3. Since Andrew's birthday is at the end of the year and near holiday time we put it off until the beginning of 2009. He had been in the pool plenty before hand. I often took him myself to open swim where we just get in and play around. He was awfully clingly to me though and wouldn't venture out on his own, even when wearing a floatation device. I was a bit worried then about lessons. But he's been a natural and progressed very well in a class atmosphere. Each class can have up to 6 participants, but he only has 2 in his class. The teacher is a personal friend & has been teaching for years. She's taught all of our kids at some point. We'll keep Andrew in swim lessons until he goes to kindergarten. That will give him a good strong base of swimming skills.