Comparison Shopping
Aside from the time commitment, cost is something that often comes up as a reason parents choose not to enroll their little one in ISR. While we believe ISR is worth the investment of both time and money to make children independent in the water from the age of 6 months and up, we know that it's only human nature to compare different options and weigh which will suit your needs best. To lend a helping hand in the decision-making process, we ran a price analysis of traditional swim lessons in our area vs SoCal ISR.
ISR
10 min private lessons purchased for a skill set (ie: Rollback to Float or Swim Float Swim)
Commitment: 5 lessons per week for approx. 6 weeks
Cost: $1500/skill set (taught over the course of ~30 daily lessons)
Outcome: Fully skilled to self-rescue in approximately 6 weeks
Age to enroll: 6 months- 6 years
Local Swim School
30 min private lessons with no guarantee of skills learned after a certain amount of lessons
Commitment: None
Cost: $46/lesson. Equivalent number of lessons to ISR (30) would be $1,380.
Outcome: No guarantee of skills learned for any amount of private lessons
Age to enroll: 2.5yo +
Local Non Profit Recreational Facility
25 min private lessons with no guarantee of skills learned after a certain amount of lessons
Commitment: None
Cost: $27/lesson. Equivalent number of lessons to ISR (30) would be $810.
Outcome: No guarantee of skills learned for any amount of private lessons
Age to enroll: 3 +
Summary
What we often hear from parents of 4 and 5 year olds is that they have spent session after session (over the course of YEARS) in the traditional group or private programs and their child has little to no independent skills to show for it. Not only is this frustrating to see your money and time wasted, but it means those are years that your children do not have any ability to swim or float should they reach water alone.
To our knowledge, none of the above swim programs will guarantee you results after any amount of lessons. Call and ask- if they can guarantee you specific results in a timeframe you feel comfortable with, then perhaps they are the better choice for you. But you deserve to know how long it will take your child to be skilled to swim and float independently if you are paying them for instruction! If they can't tell you that, it is highly probable that you will spend the same amount of money on those lessons (just spread out over years) that you would in 6 weeks of ISR. Also if your young child can learn to swim at one of these places, that's great. But they need an option to safely rest & breathe. Treading water is NOT a desirable option as young children (and even adults) tire of this very quickly. Students should know how to swim, float to rest & get their breath, and continue swimming.
For families that cannot afford lessons, please see our FAQ page for scholarship information. For families needing a payment plan, please email us- we would be happy to arrange something for you!
ISR is neither inexpensive nor convenient. It is easy to come up with all sorts of reasons NOT to do it. But the reason to find a way to just make it work- your child's safety- is a priceless one. You don't have to take our word for it- ask around on social media. Our swim families will be happy to share their experiences!