Sample plans
Every swimmer gets their own checklist after a first-day assessment — but here's the real curriculum behind it. Pick your child's age group to see the skills we work on and exactly what has to be demonstrated to move up a level.
6 months – about 3 years
A grown-up gets in the water for every lesson. The goal at this age is comfort, safe habits, and giving you the holding and support techniques to practice on your own. The Red Cross is explicit that this course is not designed to teach children to swim or to survive in the water on their own — and neither am I.
Your child explores every skill with your hands on them the whole time.
What we work on in the water
What you learn on the pool deck
Same skills, more of them, and your child starts doing some pieces independently.
What we work on in the water
Safety skills
🎁 A small prize when we finish a level together.
About 4 and 5 years old
Three levels, and this is where a child starts working without you in the water. Level 1 skills may be done with support, Level 2 with assistance, and Level 3 independently — that progression is the whole point of the track.
Skills at this level may be performed with support.
What we work on
To move up, your child demonstrates
🎁 Prize earned when every box in the level is checked.
Skills at this level may be performed with assistance.
What we work on
To move up, your child demonstrates
🎁 Prize earned when every box in the level is checked.
Skills at this level are performed independently — no support, no noodle.
What we work on
To move up, your child demonstrates
🏆 End-of-summer certificate reflecting exactly the levels completed.
Ages 6 – 12 · Starting out
Learn-to-Swim is sorted by ability, not birthday. A brand-new 6-year-old and a brand-new 11-year-old both start at Level 1 — the difference is usually how fast they move, not where they begin. Level 3 is where basic water competency in a pool comes together.
Skills at this level may be performed with assistance.
What we work on
To move up, your child demonstrates
🎁 Prize earned when every box in the level is checked.
What we work on
To move up, your child demonstrates
🎁 Prize earned when every box in the level is checked.
Where basic water competency in a pool comes together.
What we work on
To move up, your child demonstrates
🏆 End-of-summer certificate reflecting exactly the levels completed.
Ages 6 – 12 · Already swimming
For a child who already swims and is refining strokes. These levels get demanding fast, and they carry real facility requirements — I'll tell you honestly before we start whether a level is reachable in a summer at Millbridge, rather than after you've paid for it.
What we work on
To move up, your child demonstrates
🎁 Prize earned when every box in the level is checked.
All six strokes: front crawl, back crawl, butterfly, breaststroke, elementary backstroke and sidestroke.
What we work on
To move up, your child demonstrates
🎁 Prize earned when every box in the level is checked.
The top of the Learn-to-Swim ladder. Red Cross offers Level 6 in three specialties; Personal Water Safety is the one that fits a private summer program.
What we work on
To complete the level, your child demonstrates
🏆 End-of-summer certificate reflecting exactly the levels completed.
About these plans. Levels and skills shown here are based on the American Red Cross published Parent and Child Aquatics, Preschool Aquatics, and Learn-to-Swim skills charts. Age ranges are the ones Red Cross publishes; in a private one-on-one setting I place each child by a first-day assessment, not by birthday alone.
This is an independently run lesson program. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or certified by the American Red Cross. I am not a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, and any certificate I award is not an official Red Cross certification.
Completing a level is not a certification of water safety. These checklists reflect skills practiced during lessons. Finishing any level — including the highest one — does not mean a child is safe to swim unsupervised. Always actively supervise children in and around water.
These are sample plans. Every swimmer gets their own checklist built after a first-day assessment, and we move at the pace each skill actually takes — one lesson or several.