What is ISR?
Founded in 1966 by Dr. Harvey Barnett, ISR is now the global leader in the industry it pioneered: survival swimming lessons for infants and young children. Our team of over 800 highly trained ISR Instructors provides the safest and most effective survival swimming lessons available. The ISR Self-Rescue® instruction our students receive today is the product of over 45 years of research and achieves unparalleled results.
ISR believes pool fences, supervision, and pool alarms are important parts of a necessary multi-layered approach to drowning prevention. However, traditional lines of defense break down, and the over 4,000 drowning deaths per year bear a grim testament to the fact that traditional approaches are missing a key component: the child. ISR’s core conviction is that the child is the most important part of a drowning prevention strategy and our over 300,000 ISR graduates and 800 documented survival stories are proof that children can save themselves. Children are curious, capable, and have an uncanny ability to overcome obstacles like pool fences; at ISR we take that ability and teach them skills to potentially save themselves if they find themselves in the water alone.
So you’re considering ISR lessons?
CAN YOU COMMIT TO 10 MINUTES A DAY | 5 DAYS A WEEK | FOR ABOUT 6 WEEKS?
This schedule is not optional since consistency is key when attaining skills. Attendance is important for your child to attain these skills. Please discuss with the Instructor if you know your child will be missing days before signing up as deposits are non-refundable and missed lessons are not credited. We may have other options for you, let's talk it over!
CAN YOU COMMIT TO NOT GIVING YOUR CHILD ANYTHING TO EAT OR DRINK TWO HOURS PRIOR TO THE LESSON TIME (including breastmilk)?
In addition, infants and toddlers should avoid apple products throughout the duration of their ISR lessons. Apple products are high in fiber and can cause gas and bloating that will make floating and swimming maneuvers practiced during ISR lessons much more difficult.
This may effect the time you would like to pick for your child's lesson. Will the times available work with your schedule or can you adjust your schedule to make it work?
This rule is not to be broken as it is set in place for your child's safety. Our main concern here is aspiration along with contaminating the pool. This means all lessons for the day are cancelled until the pool is properly shocked. There is also a $100 pool cleaning fee.
CAN YOU MANAGE THE INVESTMENT IN ISR?
The main fees to consider are the non-refundable medical registration fee to National ISR ($105) and a session fee of $120/per week for an average total of 6 weeks. When signing up for a time slot we require a non-refundable deposit for the first week of lessons. This holds your spot and is applied to the lesson payment. Invoices will be sent out every Friday, and are due by Monday for the upcoming week.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT SAFETY IS OUR NUMBER ONE CONCERN?
THIS MEANS WE MIGHT NEED TO ADJUST LESSONS OR NOT HAVE LESSONS THAT DAY FOR YOUR CHILD (THIS APPLIES EVEN IF THE DOCTOR SAYS IT'S OKAY TO RESUME LESSONS).
As Instructors we have strict safety protocols provided by ISR that we need to follow to make sure we give the safest lesson to your child. We also love our job and want to keep it, so we hope you understand! These protocols and guidelines can be provided at anytime for you to view.
CAN YOU BE OPEN IN COMMUNICATION WITH THE YOUR INSTRUCTOR?
If you have questions or concerns, we always want you to bring those to our attention. We can only address your concerns if we hear them, so please talk with us. We do our best to explain our thoughts to you and we ask that you do the same.
Because of the short daily structure of our lessons (about 10 minutes with each child), it may be a good idea to reach out via phone or e-mail for any lengthy questions that may take more than a minute or two to answer. We do our best to respect your schedule and time constraints and we ask that you do the same for us.
CAN YOU GET YOUR CHILD TO LESSONS?
We understand it can take a village to make ISR lessons happen. Anyone you trust may bring your child to lessons as long as they follow the safety protocols set forth by Infant Swimming Resource's Self-Rescue® program.
IF YOU ANSWERED “YES” TO ALL OF THESE QUESTIONS, THEN IT’S TIME TO GET STARTED!
What Will Your Child Learn?
6 MONTHS - 12 MONTHS
Why this young? Because the sooner the safer!
The Rollback-to-Float program teaches breath control, correct floating posture and the skills to attain a back float and remain floating for a varied period of time. These students are brought back at an older age to learn our Swim-Float-Swim sequence, which they already know a portion of.
12 MONTHS AND UP
The Swim-Float-Swim program begins with teaching breath control and the skills to secure the edge of the pool or steps. Children learn correct swimming posture in a face down position, how to roll on to their backs to float, and turn back over to continue swimming. This is repeated until safety is reached.
Meet Ms. Kelli
Meet Ms. Kelli
Born and raised in Fort Myers, I now live in Tallahassee, FL with my husband, Tab, and 2 year old son, Eli. On our days off, you can find us on the boat fishing, scalloping, kayaking or doing just about anything water related. I first became familiar with ISR a few years ago when friends of mine in Fort Myers had their children and grandchildren enrolled. It sounded like something I would love to do so I drove down to watch their lessons and absolutely LOVED the program! After a close call on a family vacation at an AIRBNB with a pool, I enrolled my son immediately in lessons. By the end of the program he was confident and able to self-rescue! I decided to become an instructor and completed my training with Senior Master Instructor, Kathy Cole, of ISR Fort Myers. I can honestly say I learned from the BEST and I am beyond excited to pass the skills Kathy taught me onto the kiddos of our community.
My Background includes a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from FSU. I am a Certified Pharmacy Technician by trade and have 20 years of service working for Publix. I have 2 years of experience teaching English as a second language to children ages 5 to 15 years old and have taught children’s ministry for one year with our local 4 Oaks Church. All of these experiences have led me to my true passion of teaching ISR. I also maintain certification in CPR, First Aid and AED.
I am so excited to be providing these unique and amazing lessons to the children in our community and I cannot wait to watch your little one’s confidence in the water grow!