Two hours away
When Adam was about 6 months old, we looked for ISR lessons. The closest instructor was two hours away. So we told ourselves our locked doors and door alarms would be enough.
They weren’t. Adam was 14 months old when he slipped out of the house and into our pool, and he didn’t know how to roll onto his back and float. Our mom, Shannon, has said that if ISR had been available nearby, she believes she might have found him floating on his back, waiting to be rescued. In 2019 she put it plainly: ISR lessons “as early as 6 months old (before teaching him that the water was FUN!) would have saved him.”
After Adam drowned, our dad decided no family near us should have to make that drive. He spent eight weeks training in Florida, became a certified ISR instructor (and a Red Cross CPR instructor), and by 2023 he had taught more than 150 children to self-rescue.
Skills before thrills. No matter the cost, the time commitment or the distance, sometimes there are no do-overs.
Our mom
Why we recommend ISR, not just swim lessons
Our family recommends ISR self-rescue lessons for babies and toddlers. Not just any swim lessons, and not “mommy and me” classes.
Here’s why. Little kids usually don’t drown during swim time. They drown when they get to the water alone and nobody expects them to be there. In a CPSC study of young children who drowned in pools, 69% weren’t expected to be at or in the pool at all (CPSC). So the question that matters is simple: what will your child do in the water if you aren’t there?
ISR is built around that moment. Every lesson is about getting to air and staying there: roll onto your back, float, breathe, and, once they’re older, swim to the wall. And they practice it fully dressed, because that’s how kids fall in.
Why we don’t recommend “mommy and me”
“Mommy and me” classes are sweet, and the American Academy of Pediatrics says water play classes are fine for helping babies get used to the pool. We see it differently.
In those classes, a parent is always holding on, and what a baby learns is that the water is a fun place to be. Getting comfortable in the water isn’t the same as knowing what to do in it. The day it counts, there’s no parent in the water.
We don’t want our kids to love the water before they know how to save themselves in it. Skills before thrills.
What ISR is
Infant Swimming Resource (ISR) has taught survival swimming lessons to infants and young children since 1966 (infantswim.com), with one mission: Not One More Child Drowns. It teaches self-rescue to kids from 6 months to 6 years old. The idea is simple: if a child ends up in the water alone, they should know what to do to survive until an adult gets to them. ISR counts more than 450,000 graduates and hundreds of documented stories of kids who used their skills to save themselves (infantswim.com).
- Babies 6–12 months learn the Rollback-to-Float: roll onto their back and float, resting and breathing until help arrives.
- Kids 1–6 years (once they’re walking well) learn Swim-Float-Swim: swim, roll onto their back to float and rest, then roll over and swim again until they reach the steps, the wall or the shore.
How lessons work
- One-on-one with a certified ISR instructor, never in a group.
- About 10 minutes a day, most days of the week, for several weeks. Short, frequent lessons are how little bodies learn and remember the skills.
- Safety checks every day. Before lessons start, ISR’s medical review team looks over each child’s health history. Then, before every lesson, the instructor checks in with the parent about sleep, eating and diapers.
- Practice in clothes. Kids who fall in usually aren’t dressed to swim, so once they’re skilled, every student practices in summer and winter clothes, shoes and all.
- Highly trained instructors. ISR instructors go through intensive training before they teach. Our dad spent eight weeks training in Florida.
- Refreshers as kids grow, so their skills keep up with their bigger bodies.
No ISR instructor near you?
Check ISR’s instructor map first. It can be worth the drive.
If ISR just isn’t possible, look for lessons that teach self-rescue skills, like floating on their back and getting to the wall, and ask if your child can practice in clothes. Here are places to look:
- American Red Cross. Find a Red Cross Learn-to-Swim provider near you.
- Your local YMCA. Near us, the Blair Regional YMCA in Hollidaysburg offers group, semi-private and private swim lessons.
- Parks and recreation and community pools. Check with your town’s recreation department or public pool. Near us, the Bellwood-Antis Community Pool offers group, semi-private and private lessons for all ages each summer, and you don’t have to live in Bellwood or Antis Township to sign up. Altoona’s Prospect Pool closed for the 2026 season for a full renovation, so check its website for when it reopens.
- Adapted lessons. The American Academy of Pediatrics says swim lessons can be adapted for children with special health needs and developmental disabilities, such as autism, and that these programs reduce drowning risk. Ask local pools about adapted or one-on-one lessons.
One layer, not the only layer
Swim skills are one layer of protection. They never replace the others, and ISR says the same thing: no child is ever “drown-proof,” and supervision is the first and most important defense.
Talk with your pediatrician about what’s right for your child (see what the American Academy of Pediatrics says, below). Either way, an adult watching (a Water Watcher), a four-sided pool fence, door and pool alarms, and CPR still matter every single time.
We just want every child to have one more layer than Adam had.
