As a parent of a former Student here at Goldfish I feel bad for not leaving a review sooner. The…read morerecent news of chemical exposure may seem like a random unlucky event, but it is not. This was a result of poor leadership and training that I recognized when my daughter was a student there. After about 1.5 years of trying to make it work and not realizing there were other options, we removed her. When our daughter attended, we encountered numerous instances of untrained and unconfident teachers (in the baby class and then eventually the first toddler level. There was no plan in place or communication for when to move children up levels. At one point we had an instructor who did not talk or give instruction, we essentially were paying for open pool time. When we complained or asked to speak with upper management, we were offered to switch our class time and that they were working on it, while the teacher remained teaching that same class. She clearly was not prepared and teaching in the ONE class level where parents are present. Over time we started to realize, everything was being run by high school kids. They have one head manager who you don't see much of. Even before the chemical leak. which left at least 22 people ill, we pulled our daughter and moved to Blue Gems swim, which is ACTUALLY locally owned and ownership is present on a regular basis. There are other options! You don't have to accept THEIR standards. When I see the responses to other negative reviews related to the chemical spill it infuriates me, they don't take any responsibility for something that should NEVER HAPPEN. What happened is not normal and this location should shut down. The kicker here is the owners claim to be a local business, except for that the chain originates out of Michigan and they live in ARIZONA. You'll see the Owner, Dana Christ, post videos on facebook about swim or raising kids from the desert in the dead of winter. What you won't see is any sort of statement or ownership for what happened. They are disconnected from reality and are the ones responding to negative reviews. They will look up my name and see YES I did have a daughter swim at their swim school and YES we stopped going. They may even say "The safety of our families and team members is always our top priority" but that's clearly false as they allowed a passive infrastructure for years that finally caught up to them in a very public way. SHUT DOWN YOUR BUSINESS

DO NOT TRUST THIS PLACE with your children. They caused chemical burns and inhalation injuries…read morerequiring hospitalization for multiple children. They do not use proper chemicals for cleaning and are risking peoples lives, not just those in the pool but families breathing in air.

Kristi is awesome! My wife and I enjoyed working with her for our swim lessons. She is a constant…read morepro and works with you until you establish and perfect your fundamentals in the water. Thank you for all your help!

The best kept secret! I took two of my kids to see Kristi. My youngest son turned 10 and for some…read morereason we never really got to the point where he was fully swimming. Group lessons were really not a great fit at this point, because he was embarrassed to swim with kids much younger than him. I found Kristi online and gave her a call. She was so easy to talk to, totally got what I needed and told me to bring my older daughter at the same time to see if she needed help, too. After two sessions my son is swimming, neither kid is holding their nose or cares about having their face in the water and they are so much more comfortable. I couldn't be happier. The pool / facilities are super clean, parking is easy and she's so much fun - the kids love going there and think Kristi is the greatest person on earth! If you have a kid who's a tad nervous about water or not good in group settings, give Kristi a call. It's absolutely worth it.

We had our daughter in park district swimming classes but she wasn't making progress. At Foss she…read morebecame more comfortable and confident, and after a couple years now swims considerably better than I do.

I am truly sad and disappointed in our Foss experience at Elmwood Park. When we started at Foss,…read morethe quality of instruction and kid-friendly environment made it worth the steep price. Our son loved his lessons. However, several major factors have caused us to pull our son out mid session. This year, Foss stopped offering any make up sessions. To us, this was unreasonable as the current session is 13 weeks long and the price is $30 for a half hour. Instead, Foss offers family swim as a substitute for a make-up lesson, which books out months in advance. Other swim schools offer tokens for make up sessions as inevitably, very few families are available for 13 weeks straight. We also experienced a major lack of communication with management. Nobody answers the phone. We missed a session once and when we arrived the following week, the building was closed. There was nothing on the website or any form of communication to inform us of this closure. When I called and asked why the building was closed I was told that there had been a note on the door the previous week (the week we missed.) Most unfortunately, the quality of swim instructors at Foss varies widely. Although our three teachers before this session were great, our most recent teacher wasn't in the pool when class started, had 4 year old kids sitting on the step for long periods of time, and put the kids in time out if they moved to the other end of their lane for their turn. Of course the top priority is safety, but she never showed the children what she expected of them. I'm still not sure how they were expected to get to the other side of the lane for their turn. I had to stick up for my son when the teacher put him in time out for moving down the lane. During the first class with her, my son only swam for 10 minutes total, as the kids sat on the step for the first 10 minutes, played games for 5 minutes and were sent out of the pool early. This is not acceptable when classes cost about $1 per minute. When I spoke with the manager about my concern, another mom was doing the same thing about the same teacher. Instead of listening to me, the manager said she'd call or email me the next day, but I never heard from her until I followed up a few days later. If I were the manager, I would be interested in knowing why families were ending their sessions. Overall, this lack of communication, and poor teacher experience is no longer worth the high cost (and parking nightmare.) We were hoping to keep our son (and eventually enroll our daughter) at Foss as there are few swim environments close to us that are as kid friendly. We know a lot of families at Foss who have had great experiences, but unfortunately, it was not for us.

The place is so ghetto. The people there are so rude because the people that were PAID to be in…read morewhile I had a membership they were trying to physical fight my sons. even as far as chocking my sons and pressing them. On the other hand they went as far as using tactics to fight my son. This place should be sold and gone. Not to mention the people are repeatedly being rude to my kids and other people ( I know this because my son's friend of friends told their parents to tell me). This place is just so out of hand and should not be here much longer.

I saw a thread posting about swim lessons recently, so I figured I should write about where I take…read moremy kids. Schumacher Natatorium is the swimming pool facility within the Park Ridge Community Center located at Centennial Park on the corner of Touhy & Western, maybe a mile west of the uptown Park Ridge neighborhood. When my 3 year old Stunt Boy developed a love of water parks over the summer, we decided it was an opportune time to introduce him to swimming. We decided to sign him up for the 18 month-3 year old Water Babies. The programs here run the gamut from infant Water Babies to senior citizen exercise classes. The Park Ridge Park district really has a great facility, which is their crown jewel and their newest building. The locker room is always very clean. There's a separate closed-off dressing area within the locker rooms for families, in case dads bring little girls to class or moms have little boys. Lockers are free, just leave your ID at the front desk. There's also piles of blue towels for the taking, so you don't even need to bring your own. There's a big pool, with depth ranging from 3 feet to 7 feet and 4 lanes wide. Then there's a kids' pool with a 3'-6" depth, a fast current area, and a shallow wading pool with a very basic water slide. The pool itself is always the right temperature every time we've come -a perfect 78 degrees. And the floor around the pool is nice and balmy too, so you aren't freezing. The lifeguards on duty keep things orderly, making sure there's no horseplay or unsafe activities going on. A pool manager is constantly on the scene with a clipboard in hand, making sure everyone who's got a class goes to the right place. Since multiple classes take place simultaneously at various parts of the pool(s), it's sometimes hard to see where you belong, especially on the first day of a class. No problems here. The instructors are great with the kids. Most of them seem to be high school age or maybe starting college. One of them has really gotten to like the Stunt Boy, who progressed from Water Babies to Preschool Paddlers to Mighty Minnows in just 3 months. Totally fearless in the water, he's ready to do the cannonball if they would ask him to. Some of the classes allow the kids to advance to the next level as they learn within the class, like the "Learn to Swim" class my 6 year old son takes. It has 6 separate levels, with all classes taking place at the same time, just in various parts of the big pool. As kids master the needed skills, they move on to the next level. In all, it is a really great program and I wish I had a place like that in Chicago when I was growing up, as no city park or YMCA offered this well-organized and well-managed swimming program.

Although the instructor at this location seems very personable and invested in teaching kids to…read moreboth love and be motivated to swim, the BSS management at this location is terrible! After a swim assessment, I followed up with THEM to figure out a lesson time, only to be told they could not accommodate us. Now we are in a situation where our other option only has a wait-list!

Ms. Cherise has been amazing with my kids. She pushes them a little more every week and they've…read moreprogressed so much with her. They love going to swim class!

Been a resident of Niles for almost 30 yrs, have tried the fitness center off and on but it is…read moreextremely pricey! I can't believe people pay the prices that they impose . Residents can't even do a drop in for swimming. Front desk looked upset that I didn't know there was no drop in swim. I watched guards just talking to each other. Pool looks so outdated. No thanks !!

Swim lessons- great pool facilities. Because of Covid and other factors my kids had started swim…read morelessons four separate times without much progress, but the curriculum here is pretty intensive and my kids were making progress swiftly. Six week sessions taught very well, and a slide and vortex pool for added fun. Locker rooms are old but get the job done.

They talk about how they always keep their pool temperature so warm. However, our kids were…read moresubjected to frigid pool temps on three occasions. They were so cold I had to pull all out of the pool within 10 minutes of starting lessons due to the shivering they were experiencing. Enough was enough so I canceled. Now I'm being told it was a known issue but parents and swimmers were not told of it prior to entering the pool. They are still charging me for the coming month despite freezing my kids without proper warning of a known issue. Beware of their contracts and know they hide issues letting your kids be the ones to have to freeze.

I'm very impressed at the level of safety, professionalism, and training at this swim school…read more Safety is the number one priority to me for swimming. The teachers, though seemingly pretty young, have been trained well to follow procedures to make sure each child is safe. I've been told what some of the safety procedures are and have witnessed the teachers being very attentive to each child while in the water. The kids have a little platform in the water at the side of the pool where they wait for their turn. And in the younger classes, there is another platform they can stand on at the other "side" of the pool. For younger classes, the other "side" is only a few feet away. The teachers here are also trained to assist children who are uneasy/crying/shy. Multiple times when my child didn't want to go in the water, another teacher came up to us right away to help him get in and feel comfortable. They are trained with kids too and know how to be initiative to kindly take them out of my hands to get in the water. There seems to always be more staff than just teachers and the life guard, so there's always someone to help in times like this. I love the flexibility here. You get 12 makeup classes for the year, and you can let them know even one minute before class that you can't make it. Then they give you a virtual token to makeup the class at any other time you were free. We've been doing a lot of makeups, and because of this the teachers change, but my kids don't seem to mind because there's a system of things they do in their lesson that they are already familiar with. They also offer events for members on some nights for free swim and other activities. And they also offer family swim days at certain times of the week. Free for members on some of these days or a small fee for other days. My 7 year old learned how to swim in about 5 months here. We had a few weeks we missed and had a few breaks in between too. He's now swimming with his head underwater by himself for the whole width of the pool. Thanks Goldfish!

We left a different swim program and started here. Night and day difference. Our kids have made…read moregreat progress!

I cannot recommend this swim school. We had two very different experiences with each of our…read morechildren...but it seems they have gone downhill since. Our oldest went through the program between 2019 - 2022. She had a great time and picked up a lot of great skills, progressing through each level at a normal pace. We pulled her out after she got to a certain point as her schedule started filling with other activities (and her overall swimming was strong) Our son started in summer of 2023 and ended up getting stuck in the first level between September - March, when we finally pulled him out. What was interesting was that he was able to perform the tasks on demand (even got positive remarks during assessments), but they refused to push him up to the next level. He had a much younger instructor than what my daughter went through, who spent more time reprimanding the kids than actually working with them. We were told he could move up as well, but they never went ahead and moved him to the next level, despite showing the proper skills. We pulled him out in March and moved him to another swim school, which he's progressed significantly since. Used to really love this place, not a fan anymore.