I decided to sign my daughter up for the free "try out" session to see how she, my husband, and I…read moreliked Big Blue Swim School. We were asked to come a few minutes before our scheduled lesson time. When we arrived, there was plenty of parking in their parking lot. We were greeted and given a quick tour of the facilities. I was immediately impressed with the hair drying station, changing rooms, cubby storage, children's play/waiting area, and even the pool, which is kept at I believe 90 degrees year round, which is a huge plus for my daughter. When it was time, someone calls all the kids scheduled for that time to check in with them and tells the kids which swim lane to go to. Parents can choose to wait and watch behind glass, or go in and sit on the benches next to the pool. They do little tests during the lesson, but they make it so fun that the kids don't even realize they're being watched and tested. My daughter was rated on her current abilities, and we were approached by Julie (I think), given a welcome bag with some goodies, and told of my daughter's swim level. She went over how everything worked, rates, and answered all of our questions. When the lesson was over, the kids walk over to the shower stations (which are right next to the pool) to wash off. We decided to sign my daughter up for weekly lessons. She's gone a few times now, tried a few instructors, and we have concluded that Alexis is the best. He is so engaged the whole time, not looking off into space like some other instructors. The kids are always laughing with him, and my daughter actually smiles during her lesson with him. Additionally, I feel that his methods are more efficient and have seen improvement in my daughter's abilities. I have navigated Big Blue's website and give the site 4 stars. As much as I like the ease of signing up, changing/editing, adding, or canceling lessons and paying, I wish there was a way to see a month view with lesson and instructor labeled. Currently, I am having to edit each lesson individually to request the specific instructor. Overall, I am more than happy paying the $23 a lesson for my daughter to get swim lessons here. I recommend trying to free trial lesson. You have nothing to lose and will not be disappointed!

**Rating:** (1/5)…read more We originally signed up for a trial class for my daughter last Saturday. It is a far drive for us coming from Chicago, and we were literally 10 minutes away from the facility when they texted to say the class was canceled. No explanation was given. We gave them the benefit of the doubt and had a second class scheduled for today. Just as we were about to walk out the door to leave, they texted us saying they were canceling again. That is twice now they have canceled on us completely out of the blue, without any explanation, and at the absolute last minute. It's one thing if a business needs to cancel and provides a respectful 24-hour notice, but it is an entirely different thing to consistently cancel at the last possible second. When I confronted them about this via text, they dodged the question entirely. Instead of offering a real reason or trying to make it up to us in any way, they just gave a canned "we apologize and understand you're frustrated" response. As someone with influence over other parents on social media, I will absolutely be sharing this experience. I will be telling everyone to take their business elsewhere. This location operates with complete unprofessionalism and a glaring disregard for simple respect for their customers' time. Look for another swim school.

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.

Attended one kids b-day here and the impression was incredible! The place looks awesome! Absolutely…read moreevery detail is well matched. Pool is big. I didn't go inside the room where the pool is, but parents say it was very hot inside. Don't have to mention that kids had blast! Plenty of changing rooms. Will recommend this swimming school to everyone !

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!

Chicago Swim School is the only program I'll entrust to teach my kids how to swim. As a former…read morecompetitive swimmer and instructor, I greatly appreciate their vigilance in teaching proper form from a young age. The instructors are patient, kind, and efficient with class time, and the front desk are just as accommodating, always going above and beyond for us. My kids went from barely floating to confidently treading water and side kicking in such a short amount of time. After seeing the huge improvements in all our kids, I always recommend CSS to all our friends and family members. Swimming is a life skill that deserves this kind of quality instruction!

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

Review for Harrer Pool parties only: Don't. We contacted the park district 1 month prior to…read moreintended party date to pay deposit to secure the party room. After scheduling and paying deposit for the pool party and confirming we have 1 hour set up and 1 hour post party to clean up, we tried to contact the Harrer pool coordinator for room specs, table number, size, chairs and equipment availability so we know what we needed to buy or not buy..table covers wall decor and such. Nothing. Emails and phone calls not returned. Was contacted 2 days prior to party by the new coordinator only to be asked about the cake. Coordinator told my daughter, the birthday celebrant's mom, we had to be out of the room exactly at noon. We were pushed out at 1145.. why? They had their own party to go to. Will never opt for a party space that NEEDS to have a coordinator on site. Have used the field houses for parties before and will continue to use them again. OR will rent Oriole Pool party room and instead (as long as that particular "party planner" is NOT part of the deal) So terribly disappointed.

This review is purely for the 'open' volleyball Thursday nights. I've gone to the gym for years…read more The workers there are friendly and helpful. The older woman that looks to head this "open" volleyball seems to pick and choose when she would like others to take part. My friends and I have slowly started to participate in the open volleyball here, but have noticed that her attitude towards us participating is not very kind. We come from different suburbs in the Chicagoland area - not exactly close. But we're turned away because she felt that they couldn't let one more team play (even though other players told us we were welcome). Third week in a row we were given attitude while trying to take part in "open" volleyball. I would suggest MG park district try to come up with a sign up sheet or better method of signing up to partake in "open" volleyball. Because if I have to travel from far to only be told I cannot play, it should not be called "open" volleyball. We would have made other arrangements to play had we known we would be told we cannot play there. Instead we wasted 45 mins trying to arrange another court to play. Unprofessional and rude.