Learn to Swim Program The Rockford Park District offers an enhanced swimming lesson program with a quality format, while emphasizing fun for your children. The primary goal of our program is to teach young children to swim well enough to be safe in and around the water, and to introduce fundamental swimming skills. Lessons are offered at Alpine, Harkins and Sand Park Pools.

Bubble Club (6 months-age 3) Includes basic water orientation skills led by our instructor, but taught by you. Parents must accompany children in the water. Taught in the main pool, this is a great opportunity for parents and toddlers to enjoy the water together. The primary goal is to get young children more comfortable around the water and to begin learning critical skills of the Learn to Swim program.

Tiny Tots (ages 3-5) A continuation of Bubble Club; however, parents are not in the water, but close by. In this level, children learn supported floats and basic locomotion. Your child will also learn to feel safe in the water without parents. Primarily taught in the wading pool with lots of toys and games.

Learn to Swim (ages 5-17) In this program, children begin learning foundational swimming skills, and ultimately how to swim by themselves. On the first day of class, students are placed in the most appropriate of five levels. Children must be able to enter the water and participate on their own. Each level has a specific set of objectives to achieve before moving to the next level. Classes are taught in the main pool in at least four feet of water. All levels are taught in a positive and fun atmosphere. Levels 1 through 4 include water exploration, primary skills, stroke readiness and stroke development. Level 5 will emphasize stroke refinement and prepare youth for higher levels of swimming.

Jr. Lifeguard Program (ages 10-15) In this challenging program for advanced swimmers, students will actually go through all the training that our REAL lifeguards go through. Participants will learn lifeguard rescues, CPR, AED, oxygen administration and first aid. In addition, each child will shadow real lifeguards.

Aquatics Blast Join us for our fifth annual Learn to Swim novice swim meet. All children registered for the Learn to Swim and Tiny Tots programs are encouraged to participate. This meet offers swimmers the chance to show off the skills they have learned throughout the summer and get a feel for participating in swim meets. Children are placed in their respective class levels for competition. All participants in the Jr. lifeguarding program are encouraged to register for the Jr. lifeguarding competition during the Aquatics Blast! Participants will receive ribbons and other goodies.

RPD Competitive Swim Training This program is designed for serious competitive swimmers who desire to improve both stroke mechanics and conditioning in all four competitive strokes. This eight-week program is geared to middle school through college age students and is a great summer training program for those wanting to stay in shape for school-year swim teams.