National Programs

• Many swim schools have locations across the country, allowing you to find a school near your residence. Aqua-Tots Swim Schools has locations in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and Texas. Infant Aquatics has locations throughout the U.S. including Arizona, Louisiana, California, Montana, New York, Texas, Colorado and Florida. Some schools have several locations in one state only, such as the La Petite Swim School, which has locations in San Francisco, Half Moon Bay and San Bruno, California.
  
  

Online Resources

• Online swim schools for babies are options for families who live in colder climates and have limited access to swim facilities or have pool access but limited funds for schooling. Online swim schools include uSwim, which provides free instructional videos and printable lesson plans. Videos include how to safely introduce your baby to the water, safety fundamentals such as breath control, and stroke development. World Wide Swim Schools provides instructional DVDs for teaching babies about swimming for ages 0 to 3 years. Such DVDs are available for purchase only. Swim Lessons University provides DVDs for instructors seeking to improve the quality of their baby swim classes as well as swim gear including flotation devices and reusable swim diapers.
  
  

Considerations

• A checklist of what to look for in a swim school is recommended by Parenting.com, such as no more than 10 babies per instructor, water temperature, which should be between 86 and 92 degrees, and instructors that focus on safety measures and water fun as opposed to teaching them to swim, which they cannot yet. Parenting.com recommends not relying on flotation devices, which are not "drown proof." Rather, parents should always remain within arms length of their babies.
  
  

Lessons

• While the philosophies and approaches of quality swim schools for babies are essentially the same -- providing a safe, family-oriented environment for learning, getting babies acclimated to the water, breath work, flotation practices and other survival skills, and classes split up according to age and skill level -- the main variation among swim schools for babies is class schedule and length. Some schools, such as the La Petite Baleen Swim School, offer 30 minute classes once a week year-round. Initial lessons at Infant Aquatics are one-on-one, 10 minute classes four or five days a week for four to six weeks. Lessons at Aqua-Tots also come in 30-minute sessions once a week for a year, but Aqua-Tots also provides the option of in-home instruction.