Swimming Lessons for Young Children

I took my son to Seals Swim School In Tarpon,they have several locations.It was the best experiance and he learned so much. They teach pool rescueing as well in their classes.
K.

I lost a daughter to drowning in a Grandmothers inground hottub. It is the #1 cause of death in children 4 & under in FL. It is vital that you get swimlessons for both of your children starting NOW!
I was pregnant with my middle daughter when we lost Emma. Hannah started her lessons at 7 months. She is now almost 3 and can swim circles around most adults I know! Sarah (my 3rd daughter) is 9 months and has been taking lessons for 2 months. She has fallen in the swim instructors pool. It was terrifying at first, but she flipped onto her back and floated exactly like she was taught. You never know around water what can happen. With 2 kids it's hard to keep your eyes on both at the same time. Hannah was trying to stick 3 lollipops in her mouth at once while I was trying to get her changed. Sarah was sitting near by but all of a sudden we heard the splash. It happened so fast.
We go to Kinderswim in Bloomingdale area. Katja is the instructor and she is awesome. But don't expect it to be a tear free experience, for either of you. The instructors who teach this type of survival skill are very gentle but your child is going to scream! I have never seen a child who didn't cry. But, I have also never seen a child who's parent didn't say "I don't understand, he/she loves the water at home!" The instructor makes them work-not have fun.
Visit kinderswim.com for more info. Also search survival swim lessons for instructors in your are.
Please don't do the mommy and me classes such as the ones offered at the YMCA. They don't teach kids to float til about 3. Most drownings occur at 18 mo to 2 yrs.
Survival lessons are the best gift you will ever give your child.
emma-shelton.memory-of.com is the website for my daughter. It has links to more info on lessons and drowning facts.

Hi B.
ISR is fabulous. I enrolled both of my children in it. Tyler started last year when he turned one; he took a refresher course this summer to adjust to his growth. My 10 month old daughter is currently taking lessons.

I chose to enroll them because of family and frind pools. At a party, I had a friend leave my crawling infant 10 ft from an open door which was 10 feet from a pool. She left him for 10 minutes. She could not understand why I picked him up, he was having fun exploring. After that, I looked into different programs.
ISR was impressive. They have over 4 decades of experience and research! Not one of their students has ever drowned and they have document proof of over 700 cases where parents wrote in saying that this program saved their life. Their indivualized imstruction seems to be key. Their website really answered most of the questions I had prior to enrolling my kids, check it out at infantswim.com

As for instructors, you can find the one closet to you by entering your address on their website. We go to Dianne Cutri out in Valrico. She is a Master Instructor with 25 years of experience. I love how she is with my kids. She is very professional, caring and gentle. Her website, if you want to check it out, is dcswim.com

That said, all of the instructors are highly certified, I would simply find the one closet to me.
Good luck. This was the best thing I ever did for my kids.

Hi B.,

I am a local Certified Infant Swimming Resource Instructor. If you go to Local Business Reviews here on the mamasource website, select the category Activities and lessons on the left and go to sports and swimming, you will find many happy and thankful parents that have enrolled their children in these Self Rescue lessons.
For more information please contact our National Website at www.infantswim.com or email me at ____@____.com luck in your search, I hope this helps.

E..G.
Drowning Prevention Specialist
Certified ISR Instructor.
____@____.com

I highly recommend Infant Swim! It definately works! WHen my daughter had just turned 1, I started her in infant swim. We were looking at getting a house with a pool. When she was almost 2 I had the patio doors open moving furniture around and some onto the patio (carpet cleaners were coming). I sent my daughter into her room to play and to this day I don't know how she got passed me. We (dh and I) heard a splash and even then I figured it was one of our dogs. We went running out there and she had already flipped onto her back and was floating like she was trained. She had jeans, a sweater, diaper, socks, and tennis shoes. I pulled her out and the only thing she said was, "cold!" This was in February. So it definately works.

I would completely recommend SwimKids USA (www.swimkidsusa.com). My kids have been in lessons there every summer since they were a year old, and could swim the entire length of an Olympic sized pool by three years old. It's vital for kids to know how to swim here in FL, because even if you don't personally have a pool, your in-laws do, or your best friend does, or their playmate from school does, etc. Swim Kids has locations all over the bay area and they are awesome! Good luck. =)

My 25 month old daughter goes to Seal Swim School in North Tampa and I love it. I started Parent/Tot classes with her when she was about 10 months old. We did two 8 week classes (several months in between), and she has done 2 8-week sessions of private lessons. She can swim about 5 feet unassisted, knows where the wall is and can turn to it, float on her back, and knows how to find the wall no matter how she falls in. They do safety training which is great. It's pricey, but I have decided for us it's a priority.

Sounds good. Lessons are a must in Florida. We have used and still do, Swim Kids and it works! When our son was 2 yrs old, he fell into our pool with his father right there and he did exactly what he had been taught by Swim Kids. He got himself out of the pool in his diaper and jammies. No matter where you go...it is just a must! Good luck.

Hello,

I live in New Tampa and My oldest child did infant Swim. It was great( I'm now going to enroll my 2yr and 1yr) Chris Poole was my instructor and she is Great! She's gentle and easy going and she refers to them as "my friend." She's a mother of four herself with her youngest child on Hunter's Green Swim Team. The Children she's taught swim like fish.

Hope this helps

ISR is wonderful! My two daughters both had their 1st ISR lessons when they were 14 mos. and 22 mos. old. I was in the same situation as you are. They stayed with my aunt a lot and she had an unfenced pool with several sliding glass doors leading to it. I was so nervous I had nightmares about them falling into the pool. So we started their lessons and they both learned very quickly. They could float and then flip to their belly and swim underwater to the wall.

I will say the did NOT enjoy the lessons and at times it was hard to see them cry. But I kept in mind that it was the better to see them cry than to find them floating face down in the pool if an accident were to happen.

We had "adjustment" lessons for the youngest at the beginning of last summer when she was 26 mos old b/c she had grown so much she wasn't able to flip over into a float. After a few lessons, she was back on track.

As far as an instructor, I suggest you go to the ISR website, and search for instructors by your zip code. They are all very highly trained as part of the requirements to be an IRS instructor.

http://www.infantswim.com

I highly recommend ISR to anyone with young children.

I started my son out with lessons at the YMCA when he was 6mths old. At first I was kind of disappointed with the fact that they really didn't teach him alot but now I look back and recognize and am thankful for the fact that his purpose there was to get comfortable in the water and that's exactly what happened. I then enrolled him in Seal Swim School in Tarpon for the very next class. I was amazed at how well he did. We did the parent/tot class where I was in the water with him and then I would go home and teach my husband what we had learned. We continued the parent/tot until I was TOO pregnant with my 2nd to get out of the pool anymore !! He then went to private lessons until my daughter was born. He is swimming like a little fish and even though when he was first starting out with his lessons, he wasn't by any means an "Olympic swimmer", they tought him water survival and that's ALL I could have asked for. It wasn't my goal for him to learn to swim, although that was a great side-effect; it was to be able to know what to do if God forbid he fell into water. He knew to either flip over onto his back or knew how to reach for the wall and pull himself out or monkey-crawl around the pool. That's all I needed !! By the way, my 8mth old daughter has been in lessons now for 2mths and LOVES the water !!

You should check out the YMCA. There is also a swimming school up here in Carrollwood area that is open year round. I hear they are really good!!!