The combination of mom, dad, kids and noodles may sound like family spaghetti night, but the mix becomes something decidedly different when you add a pool and an instructor and note that the noodles are pool paraphernalia and not pasta.

You’re likely to happen on one of these congenial family scenes fairly regularly if you frequent one of the three FirstHealth Centers for Health & Fitness that sponsor American Red Cross infant/toddler swim classes. The Pinehurst and Richmond centers schedule programs periodically throughout the year, and classes are held at the Pembroke facility during the summer.

The idea is to introduce young children to the water, with mom and/or dad around for support and encouragement, and allow them to become comfortable before they move on to beginning stroke development.

Liz Linsey, a second-grade teacher at Southern Pines Primary School, has been a Red Cross swim instructor since 1978. She began to teach swimming at the Center for Health & Fitness- Pinehurst shortly after she moved to North Carolina from Vermont in 1997.

“The infant/toddler swim classes benefit both the parents and children on many levels,” she says. “First, the parents and children get to spend quality, one-on-one time together. From the child’s perspective what could be more wonderful than to be with your mom or dad, or both, and have their undivided attention while they’re playing with you in the water and applauding everything you do?”

But, says Linsey, learning to swim is also a vital skill. “The sooner children are exposed to the water, the more comfortable they become,” she says. “As infants and toddlers spend time in the water, they feel relaxed and slowly begin to feel the water supporting them. I believe that, at any age, swimming should be a fun experience for learners so that they look forward to getting in the water.”

FirstHealth’s infant/toddler swim program is designed to help young children (from 6 months to 5 years) become comfortable in the water so that they are ready to learn to swim. The program provides parents with the information and techniques necessary to orient their children to the water and to supervise water activities in a safe manner. It is not designed to teach children to become good swimmers or even to survive in the water on their own. For information on any of the learn-to-swim classes offered by the FirstHealth Centers for Health & Fitness (those for adults as well as for children), please call (800) 213-3284 toll-free.