Foss Swim School

I have tried number of different swim lessons with my children, and by far they love this place, and my youngest one finally started swimming here. He has had swim lessons for 2 years before, but always had issues with the place or instructor, or ‘being bored.’ But he loved it at Foss from the day one, and wants to keep going back.
Their pool sizes are tiny and a lot of lessons go on at once. That means kids are all confined in a little spaces splashing. Their deepest end, I don’t think is deeper than 4 ft. So I wouldn’t recommend this place to older kids or advanced swimmers. But it’s a perfect place for little ones to learn to swim. Their instructors are all so happy and energetic. Very very nice to kids and talk to the parents about personal progress after each lesson.

Our son has been going here since he was 2 yrs old. We previously did swimming at Goldfish since he was a few months old. We moved to be closer to our house. I love the teachers — they are excellent with the kids especially when they don’t always want to swim. The registration process is definitely wonky but once you get over that — you will have a good experience. They even provided us free private lessons to help our son progress faster to the next level.

Just say no.
I’ll start by saying we actually never have taken a class — and we never got to that point because the registration was so downright miserable that I cannot in good faith spend my money here. In summation, 10 phone calls, 3 mistakes made by Foss, signing us up at 2 different locations, confusing us (a new family) with an existing family — I just
.deal.with.this as a busy (full time +50 hours a week) working mom with a newborn and 2 year old. I can apprecaite that their IT systems are probably sub-​par and hence the staff never had a chance to get it right, but it was their ambivalent attitude in the folks that I dealt with that really just puts it over the edge. Stick a fork in it. just say no. Go somewhere else, I hear The British School has wonderful classes with far less of a headache.

My son is currently enrolled in a baby back float 2 and he likes the lessons very much. His instructor Ms. Victoria is great. She makes it fun so he really wants to learn how to swim without any assistance. Clean facility with friendly atmosphere.

Bad customer service. It seems like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. the teachers are fine (we liked two of them but they are never available) but the administration is horrible. They promise to call back and never do, have several different answers to the same question and I guess the worst part is that they don’t have their teacher assignments set till AFTER the session starts. And I have alerted them before that these are all problems, but they just don’t seem to change them — maybe they can’t, maybe they won’t.
All of these will make me look for a different swim school for my daughters. And that’s too bad, because they do have competition. Foss, you have finally LOST our family.

Today is my first day. great instructor and comfortable swimming pool. I learned a lot for today. If people who never know how to swim. Come here! ^^but it was pretty expensive to me. Haha ~

This is a great place to take the kids to learn to swim. We currently have our 7 month enrolled in a beginning swim class. It’s more about just getting her comfortable with the water.
Charlie, our instructor is really great. He makes some of the more advanced activities, like getting our daughter under the water comfortable for us as well as her.
Clean and well run facility.

I am sitting here as I watch Kevin take my extremely swim-​resistant son into the water 15 minutes before his swim class begins-​just as a warm up to the session. I cannot believe how amazing these people are. I am convinced my son is the most difficult child they’ve even seen (Foss disagrees of course) but literally they are the best. So patient and they all work well with hesitant, tolerant and strong swimmers. We have had Lily and Sarah and both we amazing. Kevin always comes into our session because my son does not enjoy the water. They get him in each session and make it fun. They’re always coming up with new things to do that cater to my son’s likes. Couldn’t be happier! Thank you Kevin, Sarah and Lily!

I love this place. I enrolled my two older girls, ages 3 and 5, two weeks ago. They’ve spent three full sessions in Chicago Park District swim classes but simply hadn’t made any progress. Both love being in the water — fear is not their problem — but could basically only float on their backs with assistance after all that «instruction.»
After two lessons at Foss (two 30-​minute sessions), my girls were jumping in (with their heads going under), putting their faces in and kicking on their own, and basically having the time of their lives. We’re in the third week of a twice-​a-​week Progress Builder Camp, and now they’re swimming completely on their own.
That’s after six lessons. This place is amazing.
The techniques Foss uses are gentle, encouraging, and developmentally appropriate for each level. The pool is very warm, and the teachers are experienced swimmers who have a terrific manner with the kids. They’re fun, and my kids love them.
The only downside for us is that we live in Hyde Park and have to drive to Lakeview for lessons! If Foss could open a location on the south side, they’d have business like crazy.

Love love love this place! The teaching methods work and they work well. The teachers are great and patient. I saw a manager work with one child that didn’t want to get in the water for a solid 15 minutes and he was successful!
Prices are high but totally worth it. Tried the ymca and it was basically hold your infant and play with these toys. Foss starts with the real stuff right off the bat. I was a little nervous about submersion but it works best when you just start that out right away.
Best investment.

I have two kids enrolled at FOSS swim school in Lakeview. I’ve previously had them enrolled in a park district/​community college program for over a year and my kids just we’re not making any progress. (Important note: these classes had 10 – 15 kids). At FOSS, they get semi-​private lesson (3 kids in a class) and just after two classes, my son jumped in the water. My son would not even put his head in the water prior to FOSS. My daughter is relearning the basics and is now a stronger swimmer. (Thanks Mario!) Although it costs more than the park district programs, i wish I’ve known about FOSS sooner. If you want your kids to really learn how to swim, don’t waste your time anywhere else. Most important, my kids are having fun and love going to classes each week!

My daughter is loving her swim classes at Foss. In just a few classes she has made so much progress and cannot wait for her next class. She’s excited about practicing in the tub, and she progressing better than I imagined possible. I am pretty sure that she has the best instructor in the school, Mr Mario is unafraid of being fun and silly, which makes class that much more fun. I’m excited to see her skill progress over the coming weeks and hopefully years. Highly recommend for anyone that is considering bringing their kids here!

I have 2 children currently enrolled in swim lessons at Foss. My 4 year old and almost 2 year old. We’ve taken lessons at another similar swim school that focuses on toddler and young children and I can tell you that our experience at Foss has been much better, so far.
Most swim classes for babies/​toddlers involve singing and moving in circles in a pool but this one my almost 2 year old is actually learning to swim. He puts his face under the water 5−10x/class whereas in other classes it was all about dumping water over his head and getting him used to the feeling of being in the water. Our teacher, Chris, is great and his background in Improv makes for quite an entertaining half hour.
As for my 4.5 year old who is in Sara’s class, he has more anxiety in the water and before each lesson he begs her not to make him put his face in the water. She distracts him with humor, toys, songs or whatever else she can think of to get him under and each time he comes back up, the anxiety melts away. At our last swim school, he cried usually during the whole half hour. I’m not sure if the change in him is Foss or just his age and he’s maturing a bit, but either way, I’ll take it!
So far we’ve really enjoyed our summer swim lessons at Foss.

Great place for swim lessons. We used to drive to Highland Park but thankfully they opened a place in Lakeview.