American Red Cross Swimming Lessons

Wee Waders Swimming lessons

This is a class for preschool children, ages 6 months to 4 years old, when accompanied by a parent or guardian. The purpose of Wee Waders is to develop in young children a high comfort level in and around the water and a readiness to swim.

Level Courses

Listed are the fundamentals taught in each level and some of the requirements to pass:

Level 1: Introduction to Water Skills

  • Exhaling underwater
  • Floating on front and back
  • Learning basic water safety rules
  • Opening eyes underwater and picking up submerged object
  • Recognizing a swimmer in distress and getting help
  • Submerging mouth, nose and eyes
  • Swimming on front and back using arm and leg actions
  • Using a life jacket

Level 2: Fundamental Aquatic Skills

  • Bobbing in water
  • Floating like a jellyfish
  • Gliding on your front and back
  • Moving in the water while wearing a life jacket
  • Recognizing a swimmer in distress and getting help
  • Submerging entire head
  • Swimming using a combined stroke on your front and back
  • Treading water using arm and leg motions

Level 3: Stroke Development

  • Kneeling or sitting dive in a shallow dive progression
  • Learning rotary breathing in the horizontal position
  • Learning the butterfly-kick and body motion
  • Performing a front and back crawl and glide
  • Performing a survival / back float
  • Reaching assist
  • Submerging and retrieving an object

Level 4: Stroke Improvement

  • Dive from stride position or shallow dive
  • Elementary backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly
  • Feet-first surface dive
  • Front and back crawl
  • Safe diving rules
  • Survival / back float
  • Throw assistance

Level 5: Stroke Refinement

  • Elementary backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke and sidestroke
  • Front flip turn and backstroke flip turn
  • Front and back crawl
  • Open turns on front and back
  • Perform rescue breathing
  • Standing dive with diving progression
  • Survival swimming
  • Tuck surface dive and pike surface dive

Level 6: Fundamentals of Diving / Fitness Swimmer / Personal Water Safety / Lifeguard Readiness

  • Expansion of skills learned in Level 5

Contact Information

For more information, please contact the Parks and Recreation Department by calling (605) 692-2708.