Activity Categories

Swim Lesson Descriptions for Starfish

StarBabies^TM

The purpose of this course is to foster in very young children a high comfort level in water while at the same time training parents and caregivers in water safety and drowning prevention. This course does not teach children to become accomplished swimmers or to survive in the water; it does provide a confidence building, fun, and loving experience.

Starbabies: Recommended ages for children 6 months to 18 months and must have an adult in the water with them. Parents are taught how to help their child start the steps of self-rescue by:

• Getting face wet and breath control
• Jumping in, submerging and resurfacing
• Floating on front and back unassisted
• Rolling from front to back to float and breath
• Locomotion on front and back with kicking and pulling with face in the water
• Swimming to wall and climbing out

StarTots^TM

The purpose of this course is to foster in very young children a high comfort level in water while at the same time training parents and caregivers in water safety and drowning prevention. This course does not teach children to become accomplished swimmers or to survive in the water; it does provide a confidence building, fun, and loving experience.

StarTots: Recommended ages for children 19 months to 3 years old and must have an adult in the water with them. Parents are taught how to help their child start the steps of self-rescue by:

• Getting face wet and breath control
• Jumping in, submerging and resurfacing
• Floating on front and back unassisted
• Rolling from front to back to float and breath
• Locomotion on front and back with kicking and pulling with face in the water
• Swimming to wall and climbing out

Starfish Swim School ®

Students work toward development of the five core swimming competencies and receive color stage awards for each achievement. The color stages are used to divide students into broad ability groups. Children progress at individual rates with the opportunity to learn the core swimming skills and progress to advanced strokes. Learning is self-paced but challenging.

The City of Santa Maria has a new, streamlined, swim lesson registration process. You will simply select the session dates and time you would like to attend, and our talented team will do the rest!

On the first day of lessons, certified Swim Lesson Instructors will perform swim testing on each participant; assessing swimming abilities based on the Starfish Swim School benchmarks (see below). Your child will then be placed in the appropriate class, with similarly skilled children. All classes will maintain a 1 instructor to 6 participant ratio and will be 30 minutes in length.

• Starfish Swim School Benchmarks
• Benchmark 1: Submersion of face and body
• Benchmark 2: Independent floating on back
• Benchmark 3: Self rescue and roll on back to breath
• Benchmark 4: Forward movement with good body position
• Benchmark 5: 1,2,3 breathing pattern with proper stroke

Starfish Stroke School^TM

Students refine freestyle and learn stroke technique for backstroke, butterfly, breaststroke, and more!

The City of Santa Maria has a new, streamlined, swim lesson registration process. You will simply select the session dates and time you would like to attend, and our talented team will do the rest!

On the first day of lessons, certified Swim Lesson Instructors will perform swim testing on each participant; assessing swimming abilities based on the Starfish Swim School benchmarks (see below). Your child will then be placed in the appropriate class, with similarly skilled children. All classes will maintain a 1 instructor to 6 participant ratio and will be 30 minutes in length.

• Starfish Stroke School Benchmarks
• Benchmark 1 and 2: Freestyle and Backstroke
• Benchmark 3 and 4: Butterfly and Breaststroke

Silver Star-Tweens

This class is recommended for non-swimmers pre-teen and teens. Participants are taught based on individual abilities ranging from getting their face wet to the basic mechanics of freestyle.

Angel Fish-Adaptive Aquatics

The Children with Challenges^TM (CWC) program is a ground-breaking curriculum integrating the latest techniques for working with individuals of all ages with cognitive or physical challenges including those on the Autism Spectrum. A parent/caregiver must be in the water with the student.