We have been coming to the Blaine FOSS since our eldest daughter was 6 months old. Our daughter loves 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! read more

Yes it's expensive. But learning to swim is a must and I think every child should know how to swim so 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. read more

We just found out tonight that the average child takes each level 2-3 times. At $225 per level, we have spent about $4,000 and our son is not even 5. At this rate, his swimming lessons will cost more than 1 year of college tuition. If Foss would be up front and honest about this in the beginning, maybe people would have more to consider when picking where to sign their kids up for lessons. I am disappointed with them not only because I feel like it's a pyramid scheme, but also because each lesson they "start over" and my child gets bored. I also don't like that they test halfway through the session so if your child improves and passes at the end, they still have to repeat the class. Overall, there are less expensive options out there that are just as effective and not trying to scam you into paying for 3 sessions each level. I would rather spend my $14,000 for his college education then overpriced swim lessons. read more

Find somewhere else!! We had a great 1st experience when my son went for one quarter, after that it all went down hill. They are very money hungry. When facilities had to close due to the governor mandate because of COVID, they wouldn't honor refunds, only credits to be used on your account. I was forced to either lose my money or sign my daughter up. We decided to sign her up one last time so we could use our credit. The teacher was not a good fit for younger children, she was inpatient and would yell at the kids to pay attention and at one point "dropped" my daughter saying "you weren't listening to me". My daughter had a noodle so its not like she would sink to the bottom but it was completely uncalled for. You could tell the children were uncomfortable and as a mother it made me sick to watch. We had a substitute one class and she had the front desk lady come over during the class while the substitute gave her a Jimmy John order...all while she was supposed to have attention on the kids in the water! When I called to complain and pull my daughter out of the class telling them I would not return, all they offered was yet another credit that wouldn't expire and I would get a veteran instructor next time. Yes the manager was nice and listened and sympathized, but I told them I wasn't ever coming back and they still try to push a credit onto me. They also spend a lot of time chatting with the kids which wastes a lot of swim time. We now go to Lifetime Swim and LOVE it there. If you have one by you, save your $$ and go to Lifetime. They actually focus on basics like treading water, monkey airplane soldier, front stroke...things I never experienced at Foss and it was the same age/level...Lifetime Swim also has a ton of private showers. Foss has communal showers so you have to hurry and rinse your kid off. I think they have 2 private showers, but good luck ever getting a turn. We did have a good experience with 2 instructors at Foss and it makes me sad I have to write such a negative review, because they were great teachers....but the business itself is just after your money and could careless about your concerns. read more

All the instructors my son has had have been great. They are all about teaching swimming. Even the games they play teach valuable swimming skills. The building is designed for swimming lessons and does not have distractions for the kids like a water park attached to the pool. You are not paying to have someone watch your kid splash in the pool with other kids for half the lesson. If you want to go somewhere that is going to teach your kid so swim this is the place. read more

Both of my kids have been going here for a few years now. The instructors are great and the classes usually never have more than 5 kids in them. Often times there are only 2-3 kids per class. My only complaint is that it isn't cheap. This is definitely "upscale" swimming instruction. The other minor complaint I have is that they don't teach kids basic swimming SURVIVAL skills like how to tread in deep water. So while they trained my kids to be great swimmers, they still would drown eventually in deep water if they didn't have a life jacket on because they don't know how to tread water. I think Foss should incorporate this basic swimming skill into their lessons. Now I'm stuck trying to figure out how to teach my kids how to tread. read more

My son learned more in one Foss camp than he did in two years of Red Cross swimming lessons at the local middle school and a set of YMCA swim lessons AND a set of Lifetime Fitness swim lessons. So while the tuition is pricey per class, when you figure that they are learning to swim a lot faster than they do in cheaper classes, it comes out to be a pretty good value. The management staff is great and accommodating, the instruction is top notch, parent communications are clear, and there are extra opportunities for fun (fun meets, family days). My kids have learned swimming as well as survival skills (my toddler was taught how to swim back to the side in case of an accidental fall into a pool, as well as back floats for all my kids). We did our first "fun meet" last month and my kids loved it and so did I. They got to "race" in a very supportive and non-competitive environment and stretch themselves a little farther than they usually do in class. We are a Foss family now - totally converted - we will never waste money on cheap swim classes again - you get what you pay for. read more