Over the July 4th holiday, my husband and I took our daughter camping. This is something we do every year and we always look forward to being out in nature where we sleep well, eat even better and come home re-energized with a renewed spirit. We went into town for a couple of hours one morning to walk around, as this place has an incredible arts community and we'd heard rave reviews of the sculpture gardens. Upon our return, we saw a couple of red Sheriff's SUVs leaving the campground and assumed some campers had been celebrating a bit too hard. I wish it had only been something that small. As it turns out, a man was swimming with family members, got tired and was unable to maintain himself in the water. He ended up drowning. He was 21 years old was found at the bottom of the lake in only 8 feet of water. My husband and I were stunned to learn of this and it forced us to re-examine an issue that we'd had many heated debates about... teaching our daughter to swim.
My husband feels that learning to swim should be fun and that it should start when kids are a little older, say, 4 or 5 years old. I used to agree with him. I'd heard of something called ISR (Infant Swimming Resource) from one of the moms in my StrollerFit class. She enrolled her 10 month old son in classes. ISR teaches infants 6 months to 6 years of age water safety. They learn breath control, they learn to propel themselves through the water, roll to their backs to float & rest and get to themselves to the shore or poolside safely. It teaches them how to save themselves if they're ever in a situation where they're alone and fall into the pool or out of the boat, etc. You take your child to class every day, Monday through Friday for 6 weeks. I know, I didn't believe it either and at the time, I was shocked and horrified that any parent would take such an aggressive approach to teaching a child to swim. I had shared this information with my husband and he agreed that it wasn't right for our daughter. We decided to wait until she was older and put her in traditional swim lessons.
Boy, have I changed my tune! Upon learning about this man's misfortune, I told my husband I wasn't willing to pussyfoot around the issue any longer and that I was enrolling Macy in ISR classes upon our return home.
Lucky for me, I found an instructor who teaches classes 5 minutes from my house and she was able to start my daughter in classes just this week. I must say I am not only impressed, but AMAZED at what my daughter has learned to do in just 3 days of instruction and a total of only 30 minutes of pool time. Yes, I failed to mention that each ISR lesson lasts only 10 minutes! Macy cries initially, and yes, it's hard for me to hear her calling for me. But, when I look at it through different lenses and put myself at the campground next year when we're at the swim beach, I'd rather have her crying and calling me from the lake or from a pool of water than floating at the bottom when it's too late. At least if she's crying and calling me, she's BREATHING! She's a guppy right now, but I believe that ISR will give her the tools to become a shark of a swimmer someday. I'll continue posting on her progress.
ISR isn't for everyone and it's not cheap. I look at it as an investment in Macy's safety and well-being that will last her entire lifetime. There's plenty of time for her to learn the backstroke and the butterfly. I am giving her the tools for survival in a water emergency with ISR and I'm giving myself some much needed peace of mind knowing she'll be OK if she's ever faced with a water emergency. If you are interested in learning more about ISR, their website is: www.infantswim.com. You can watch a video of a baby swimming to safety on the website and it's truly remarkable. Oh...just one more thing.. ISR has a 100% survival success rate--those who learn the tools and are forced to use them, survive!!