We have been very impressed with Foss and our now 3.5 year old has started around 1 year old. You…read morecan really see the confidence and progression. It's 4 to 1 teacher or less. Though we do find that a class of 4 can be a lot for the teacher with some waiting around in between. The water is shallow and warm. Excellent teachers!

Great teachers. They did all they could. We sent our kid there and all the (non substitute)…read moreteachers are very very dedicated. Admin is kind of ok. Once you enrolled in one course, they marketing email keeps coming for you to sign up the next one right away. Even we have just stated. The method is great for young children. Really great. I would recommend any kids aged below 12. No theory teaching - theory is more proper for youth and adults. It's best for young kids who learn as they go intuitively. When I was young, I was taught by phy-ed teachers at a university and I received a lot of on land theory instructions. They also check the alignment of student legs body and arms and if required they brought students to practice on land. Foss is different and it lets you get in the water and practice and learn as you go. You do it and they correct you. It is perfect for young kids. For adults or youths with history of failure prior and need a bit of theory, I would not recommend.

Don't waist your $$$! They will charge when they decide to cancel classes last min. Essentially…read morecharging you for services they don't provide or even offer.

The instructors are nice. Flexible schedule. Very deceptive billing. Read the fine print or you…read morewill be finding charges that you didn't expect. Employees gave wrong info on billing several times and the manager refused to help.

Best poolin this area! The ONLY thing I'd change is how popular it is, and since Crystal Cove is…read moreclosed this year (2024) it will probably be even worse. I don't mind, but my teenage nonverbal autistic granddaughter wishes it was just us lol

I want to start with the good: this is a very nice community pool that has some unique features…read morelike the lazy river and some nice water slides for various ages. The lifeguards take their jobs and safety seriously, which was comforting to see. My kids LOVE the lazy river but I was disappointed that they got rid of the inner tubes they used to have, so it's not really a "lazy" river anymore since you can't just relax and float. The not so good: the prices are so high! $14 per person for ages 2+, plus a 3% credit card fee. You are allowed to get a stamp for re-entry but you are not allowed to bring any snacks so anyone who has children knows, you won't make it longer than 2-3 hours with kids without food. They do have a concession stand, but as expected they only offer pizza burgers and the like, no fruit or veggies or other healthy snacks. For a family of 4 to enjoy 2 hours at the pool we paid $57, which is quite high. The other not so good bit is the pool is always so crowded; we got there 20 min after they opened and could not find a chaise to set our stuff on. The sign at the entrance says the capacity is 644, but I can't imagine if they actually allowed that many people in, it would be utterly unbearable. In summary, this is a great community space but I personally do not plan to go more than once per season because of the over crowding and the high cost.

The address that is listed with this is currently wrong - these lessons take place in the Butler…read moreBuilding on the St. Catherine University campus in St. Paul's Mac-Groveland neighborhood. We've had a kid in the summer swim sessions (there are three sessions a summer) the past three years. I love it because the teachers are great (I assume they are St. Kate's swim team members), its well organized, the facilities are nice, and the kids learn a ton because they go every day for 2 or 3 weeks rather than once a week for eight to ten weeks, which is what most swim lessons are like. It seems like the learning is stronger with the every day method. I've continued to be extremely pleased with the program, and plan to continue to have a kid as a participant for many summers to come!

Great swim instructors that are very patient and knowledgeable. Safety is a priority here.read more

We love goldfish! The instructors are great and we always have fun practicing new skills at family…read moreswim.

We have been coming to the Blaine FOSS since our eldest daughter was 6 months old. Our daughter…read moreloves water and she developed some good skills at FOSS. She's 6 years old now. Facility is nice and employees are great, what's not so great is, the evaluation system. I understand it's some what subjective to who's doing the evaluation, but the general goal shouldn't be to maximize as much revenue as they possible can, rather considered your child's skills. It feels like the pass/repeat/fail all depends on how many kids they have registered and if they have available room or not, definitely your child's skill set isn't the primary factor. Exhibit A: our daughter tried North Wolf swimming club and passed with flying colors. She just wasn't used to the coach style learning and she was intimidated with coach yielding to other kids, she wasn't ready for that. We decided to continue with FOSS. They kept her in the same class for 3 consecutive seasons and the excuses were, she needs to work on her "breathing" or she needs to work on her hands! This is a girl that swamped the whole Olympic size swimming pool back and forth for her try out! Later we discovered they didn't have enough student registered for the next up session and the existing class is over capacity! Exhibit B: They placed a new student in their group, whom happens to be a girl my friend goes to school with. She never attended swimming lesson but she ended up in the same class as our daughter! Now you have kids with high varying degree in their skill sets and our daughter ends up not getting enough attention the instructor focuses more in monitoring others and helping others. I don't like singling out employee as they get the over arching theme instructions from the corner offices, but Alexander, floor manager, took it to the next level when I tried to approach her with our over all concerns! Her general responses was, "you telling me your concern doesn't change how we grade" paraphrased! So, this is our last session and we are taking our daughters to a different place where they can learn and excel!! PS: they charge us ~$250 per season. roughly we spend ~$750 to learn the same skill sets, the pattern has been repeat x3 per each session/season!

Yes it's expensive. But learning to swim is a must and I think every child should know how to swim…read moreso cost isn't important to me IF they are progressing. We've had a few headaches with the level progression. They wanted to hold my child back based on one thing he needs to work on. Then he's bored in the next session while the other kids look like beginners. I dislike that they level eval so early in the session. It seems like they don't want to pass anyone. So they get your child swimming? Yes. Its a headache sometimes that they aren't working specifically on what your child needs to work on. Frustrating. I wish they'd teach more endurance and how to tread water. They need more showers too. And as of today the pool is filthy. Like so dirty. Yuck! No wonder why my child keeps getting ear infections. Overall we continue to go as we have a pool at our House. He needs to learn to swim and nothing in the area compares.

The city maintains a lovely little family pool and a nice lap pool. They are highly accessible and…read moreaffordable and well-kept.

Really nice indoor aquatic center with two 25-yard lap pools. One of the pools has a zero-depth…read moreentry ramp for those with mobility issues. Both pools are lightly used in the early afternoon, if you can get here before 3pm you will have your own lane and maybe even an entire pool to yourself. They have locker room facilities (bring your own lock), showers, and restrooms. Drop-ins are $5, there's a lot for parking.