Lesson Guidelines & Information
An essential part of the ISR program is parent participation. If you have already registered with ISR or are thinking about ISR lessons for your child, ISR has strict guidelines that will require certain information from each parent about their child. This information is needed to make each and every lesson as safe as possible. Please read below for all that you will be required to provide each week while your child is engaging in ISR self-rescue lessons with any ISR Instructor.
After you register with ISR, you will receive a Welcome Kit in the mail. In that kit will come a Parent Resource Book (PBR) please read it, as well as any other documents that I email to you. Direct communication is part of the process to the learning environment. I consider myself teaming up with each parent, so that we work together to ensure your child’s safety.
BEFORE THE LESSON: Your child should not have anything to eat or drink for 1 ½ hours prior to the swimming lesson. NO milk or dairy products (cheese, eggs, yogurt, etc.) 2 hours before lessons. Children under the age of 3, should not receive any kind of apple products (no juice, fruit, etc.) the entire time they are in lessons. The gases from apple products may cause stomach distention and discomfort for your child. Please remember what you say and how you say it BEFORE (and AFTER) your child comes to lessons or enters the pool is extremely important, try to set your child up for a happy productive class by displaying a positive attitude yourself.
BUDS FORMS: BUDS stands for bowel, urine, diet and sleep. There are 2 kinds of BUDS forms. 1) The first one is called a FULL BUDS. This is for any child under 31 months of age or is being required to fill it out due to a medical condition. These forms are filled out daily and presented to me BEFORE your child swims. NO BUDS = NO SWIM. 2) The second BUDS is called a POOLSIDE BUDS and is filled in for every child who is registered with the ISR program no matter what the age. An explanation will be required for any changes in your child. It is the parent’s responsibility to be able to verbally explain any changes for either BUDS.
FULL BUDS are emailed to you by ISR when your registration has been approved. After these forms are completely filled in for one whole week (or two if you printed on the back), please leave the BUDS form in your time slot for me to keep. POOLSIDE BUDS are always kept at my pool in a notebook and will be explained on day one how to fill them out.
SWIM DIAPERS: Any child not potty-trained MUST wear 2 NON-disposable swim diapers. If your child has been potty trained less than 6 months, it is recommended that the child still wear 2 non-disposable swim diapers. Once your child’s registration has been completed with ISR, you will receive a Welcome Kit, in that kit will be one ISR non-disposable swim diaper. You will need to purchase another non-disposable swim diaper. They must be washable, made out of polyester, nylon or cotton and have elastic at the waist and both legs. They can be purchased from merchants around town, as well as, Infant Swimming Resource at www.isrsealstore.com. They should be snug, but not tight. These 2 non-disposable swim diapers/pants together will contain any bowel movement and prevent contamination of the pool water. The disposable kind (Huggies, etc.) will NOT be permitted in the pool.
LESSON FEES: All lesson fees are to be paid in full on MONDAY (or the Friday before the week begins). I accept CASH only. If you need to pay later in the week, please speak to me about it. Please enclose cash in an envelope with your child’s name on it and place it in your time slot each week.
CHILD’S APPOINTMENT TIME: Try to arrive at least 5 to 10 minutes prior to your child’s lesson appointment time, this should allow you enough time to change your child into their swimsuit. Please remember, the time slot that you were given is your child’s “in water time”, if you are late or allow your child to go to the bathroom – their lesson will be shortened. If you are constantly late, your appointment time will be changed.
COME PREPARED: ISR’s policy is 3 large towels for your child, which needs to be brought to lessons every day. One towel will go on the pool deck, the next towel will go on top of that and the last one is for covering your child. If your child requires sunscreen, please put it on them before coming to the pool, if possible, so it has had time to absorb in their skin and they are not slippery. If your child has to use the bathroom facilities, you will need to get the key to open the door. Please only use the facilities in case of an emergency. Do not make using my restroom before swimming a habit. Remember what you start on the first day, will create a “habit” for the rest of the time your child is in lessons.
CLASS CANCELLATIONS: If class is canceled, I will call you OR if you have not heard from me – call my business number @ 813-546-3452 – my message will indicate if class is canceled or not. You can also check out http://www.weather.gov for the current weather. This may come in handy during the rainy season for severe weather. Please call and leave a message if you will be absent from a lesson for any reason. Please read the SICK, VACATION & RAIN DAY POLICIES for more details on class cancellations.
VIDEOS & PICTURES: It is ISR policy that video’s be taken on FRIDAYS ONLY. Snapshots may be taken anytime throughout the week, provided it does not interfere with the swim lesson. Once you have taken a video you must submit the video to me, if you will be posting it on ANY internet site like Facebook, U-Tube, etc. I will then forward your video to the ISR home office for approval. If you are taking videos on any other day than Friday or I think you are taking videos, I will stop your child’s lesson. ISR has gotten very strict about their video policy to prevent incorrect information being spread about ISR on the world wide web. There are some inaccurate claims being made about ISR based on videos of students. This policy is also to protect Certified ISR Instructors from the wanna-be instructors who claim they can teach the ISR method based on a video that they saw.
SAFETY REQUESTS: Parents will need to keep each and every child that is brought to the pool with them under control, whether they are the student in lessons or not. In addition to safety for your child, it’s for the safety of the other children and parents on the pool deck. It is also very distracting to a parent who is watching their child in lessons. It’s in the best interest of the swimming student if they remain calm before lessons, as they will need all their energy for the lesson and to rest afterwards. Please do NOT allow your child to hang on my safety pool fence.
AFTER THE LESSON: Immediately following the lesson, your child will be placed on the pool deck on their left side. This time is allotted for them to rest and burp. Some children will burp loudly, this is normal. This is also a great time to tell your child how proud you are of their efforts. :)
Rain, Sick and Vacation Day Policy Guidelines
During the course of your ISR swimming lessons, a significant time commitment (4 to 6 weeks) is made. During that time, your child may need to miss a swimming lesson. Listed below are my policies regarding days missed. If you know in advance that your child will not be in class, please let me know. You can call (813) 546-3452 between 7:00AM and 9:00PM and speak to me or leave a message on my voice mail. **Please note that I do NOT return your calls, unless you specifically ask me to.
- SICK DAYS: We all know that children can become ill from time to time. DO NOT bring a sick child to class. In the event your child needs to miss a swimming lesson, NO CREDIT OR MAKE UP is given for individual days. If your child becomes ill and misses three (3) consecutive days in the same week you may take them as make-up days in the last week of your child’s lessons. If you are out 3 days or more, you will need ISR RET approval to return to swim lessons. If your child is sick and needs to miss a week, no fee is required. However, if your child misses more than one week of lessons and I have a waiting list, your appointment time may be given to someone else. If I am sick, I will cancel class, no fee is required for those days. I will call you in the event I become ill. Below is a sample of ailments that would REQUIRE your child to be out of swim lessons; vomiting, severe diaper rash, constipation for 3 or more days, non-stop loose bowel movements, unknown or contagious skin rash, solid yellow or green infection of the nose, sore throat, wheezing, severe cough, bronchitis, dehydration, fever, prescription medication that your child has never taken before. When it doubt, please call me.
- VACATION DAYS: During the year we all need vacation. If you know when you are going on vacation in advance, for a week or more, please let me know as soon as possible. No fee is required if you take a week for vacation. If you take individual days for vacation the same policy for SICK DAYS will apply. Through the year, I will take vacation days and holidays off (Memorial Day, Independence Day and Labor Day) other dates will be posted at the pool well in advance to the actual day. No fee is paid for days that I take off for pool maintenance, vacation, personal appointments or ISR business.
- RAIN DAYS: In Florida, we can count on at least a few rainy days. If I am canceling class due to rain, I will try to call you in advance. If you have a good distance to drive, you may want to give me a cell phone number so I can reach you in route. If you are not sure if class is canceled, call my business line @ (813) 546-3452, my phone message will say whether class is canceled or not. Sometimes showers move in an out very rapidly, so always make sure that class is canceled. NO CREDIT OR MAKE UP is given for rain days, unless I cancel the lesson.
I have tried to make all of these policies as fair as possible. I do keep a daily attendance record, in case there is a question. As you might understand, consistency in the swim lessons is very important, but I in turn also understand that special circumstances will require you to miss a lesson. There are exceptions to some of these policies, please feel free to speak to me about them.
Thank you.
Michele
