Glass blowing has always fascinated me, so much so that I decided to check out classes and try it…read moreout for myself. I am so glad I did! I signed up for the holiday ornament class and had a total blast. There were about 7 of us gathered around this large octagon of a table that was set up with torches, glass, and other tools. The instructors were incredibly friendly and helpful. We spent the first 15-20 working with the glass and getting comfortable before moving onto our project. We got a thorough demonstration and then had the opportunity to create our own piece. I am so happy with how mine turned out and I can't wait to go back for another class. Know before you go: propane first, then oxygen; always keep spinning.

The studio is great! Took a pendant making class here today and will definitely be going back. It…read morewas a lot of fun, and we got to witness some of the amazing techniques behind glass art. David was very helpful and we ended up with some really cool pendants.

I like to say "People make the place, it's not a place that makes the people."…read more EP KC North, in my experience, has been amazing. I am a single mom and putting a center tuition into my budget is EXTREMELY stressful. However, as of Jan 2022 - the people there :) - director and staff - seem so authentic and sincere ... not only about my son (who needs a little extra help) but about working with me to try and make every day, and the budget work. As KC is a huge corporation, I didn't really expect this level of empathy/care - or for them to give a $h*t for my little situation. So far, I am very happy and will try to hustle the best I can so my son can learn and grow with people, I believe, have his best interest in mind.

Heather and the team at Valley View Kindercare are amazing. Our almost 3 year old has been enrolled…read morehere since he was an infant, and we couldn't be more comfortable with and confident in the care he receives. He loves to go each day, and we love our Kindercare family!

I gifted a joint eFoil class with Zen Watersports to my husband for his birthday and we had the…read morebest time. First of all, Beth was very flexible with the scheduling. The Friday we were originally going to do it was too stormy and she worked with us to come the following Sunday when the weather was much nicer. She also provided wetsuits since we're getting later in the season. Beth did a great job explaining the rules of safety and mechanics of the eFoil. She has helmets with headsets so she can coach you while you learn. Beth was super positive for our entire lesson and my husband and I both managed to get standing and "flying" within the three hours we had with Beth. Once she had coached both of us she let us run the eFoils around the river until they ran out of battery. We both had huge grins on our faces from all the fun we were having.

We enjoyed taking classes here at Foss. A lot of the staff were great. The two major pitfalls are…read morehow crowded it is. Granted the "classes" are about 3-4 kids average but the classes are all at the same time as everyone else and in a small section of the lane. This is not conducive to learning for the other pitfall, the overstimulation and inability to accommodate children with special needs. Trying to learn to swim in a loud, busy and crowded pool is daunting. No dig at the staff, they are doing the best they can given the circumstances presented. Maybe Foss can carve out some time and space for kids with non-neurotypical or special needs.

I have never been so frustrated with a business over something that should have been incredibly…read moresimple. My daughter is 2 years and 10 months old. I registered her for a FOSS swim class and FOSS had her date of birth during the registration process. Their system allowed me to enroll her, accept the registration, and take my payment. We showed up for her class today, only to be stopped at the door and told that she was too young because the class requires children to be 3 years old. If the age requirement is truly mandatory, why did your registration system allow me to register a child whose DOB clearly showed she was not yet 3? Why was my payment accepted? Why wasn't the registration rejected or flagged at the time I signed her up? I was told someone had supposedly called us earlier today to warn us. We received no call, no voicemail, no text, and no other notification. Regardless, waiting until a family physically arrives for a class before addressing an eligibility issue that was already apparent from the child's registration information is unacceptable. I also asked FOSS to show me the written policy stating that this specific class requires children to be 3. I could not find this requirement on the information available to me, and when I asked for clarification and requested escalation to management/corporate, I was essentially given nowhere to go. Their customer-service chat has refused to provide a corporate contact or meaningful escalation. This isn't about wanting special treatment for my child. It's about basic customer service and accountability. If your system knows a child's date of birth and allows a parent to register and pay for a class, you should catch an age restriction BEFORE the family shows up at the facility. We paid for a service that FOSS accepted our registration for, made plans around that class, and showed up expecting our daughter to participate. Instead, we were turned away at the door and then couldn't get a straight answer or a way to escalate the issue. Very disappointing experience, and based on how this has been handled, I cannot recommend FOSS Swim School.

I'll update my reviews since some of their policies have changed…read more They allow make up lessons now if your kid is sick! As a parent, this really helped relieve some of the stinging of the sticker shock. They started taking teacher consistency, more seriously, and I think it is made a huge difference. No more cycling of teachers as much. It's a warm pool, warm locker room, and Good curriculum where your kid will make progress. There's lots of repeating of levels, but that's true at any swim school. To avoid that, you just need your kid to have tons of pool time outside of lessons. They have a few family open swim times a month but not a lot, you almost need a gym membership with pool access such as at the YMCA in addition to foss lessons if you want to avoid repeating lots of levels. It's still crazy expensive, but you get what you pay for. I have yet to find another swim place that can produce the results that Foss can.

We faced the daunting task of teaching our son to swim. He likes to splash around in the pool with…read moreus holding him, but swimming is something different. We came to Foss as it was highly recommended. First off, it is hard to even get in here. They announce their courses (a slate of weekly sessions stretching over a couple of months) and they almost immediately fill up. It's like buying Superbowl tickets. I think the reason is that not many places have a curriculum of very organized, structured, swim teaching programs like Foss. The prices are reasonable, too. Our little guy was a bit scared the first class (groups of 4-5 kids plus 1 parent per kid), but we kept going and the teacher kept working with him and now he loves swim class and even dances around in the lobby when we get there. The facility is clean, well maintained, etc. and the people are super friendly. I highly recommend Foss for teaching your kids to swim.

This is a great (clean) space for a variety of workouts with free weights and machines and aerobic…read moreequipment. In addition to the pool with a slide for the kiddos & indoor track there is a gymnasium and various classes like Pilates and yoga. My one gripe is that they shut the pool down for most mornings for lap swim due to water aerobics. They could easily leave 2 lanes open but not so much a consideration.

terrible experience. Took advantage of a student account. Very worried about profit over customer…read moreservice.

Just booked my second class, which should tell you something. c:…read more I love this place's aesthetic and brand theming. Like, the owners are having fun with it; the colors, the "villain era" ad copy, the merch. The pricing seems quite reasonable to me, at $79 for a 4-week class session, that's just under $20 for an hour of instruction. They have other pricing structures available too, including a monthly subscription type deal. (I work seasonally, so I can only really join in during my off-season, unfortunately, otherwise I might be tempted to go for their "Very Important Villains" option.) They host drop-in style classes too that you can attend individually for $25/ea. (I did one using a 10% off coupon they sent me after completing my first class. They want you hooked!) The thing that impresses me most is the sheer variety of stuff you can learn here, and at many difficulty levels you can advance through with practice. I chose Lyra as my first beginner course and have had a blast. The next one I signed up for is Chair dance. Tbh, I'm also interested in Pole dance and Aerial Silks. I just kinda wanna try it all! They also have classes for dancing in high heels, burlesque, and trapeze! Wow! See what I mean? You're just gonna wanna try it all! The studio space is a bit compact, but workable. On entry there's a room off to the left where you can change if you need to, as well as a gender-neutral restroom. In the lobby is a coat rack and place to take off your shoes. The studios are off to the right and you'll check in with the friendly employee behind the desk. Near the desk are lockers if you feel a need; I've felt secure leaving my little baggie beside the couch. We're all here to learn and have fun, no one's gonna nick your stuff, haha. They also have snacks and drinks for a $1 donation (aka, they aren't trying to profit, just make sure you're properly fed and hydrated for physical activity!), and some fun merch like stickers and t-shirts depending on how big a fan you are, hehe. Additional changing rooms are also there in the lobby. The staff, instructors, and other students have all been friendly toward me. I'm a trans guy, and I've already met a couple other students who use they/them pronouns. In fact on their website they specifically call out that they are an LGBTQIA+ affirming space for everyone. I will say that this was a large factor into my decision to enroll and try their studio. Introductions always include your name AND pronouns. I've been very pleased by the inclusivity. They're also big on offering adaptations on class instruction to accommodate all body types and abilities. The instructor I've had for Lyra comes off very confident and knowledgeable. She has also been encouraging and will keep an eye on you if it looks like you might be off-balance. Each class begins with some warm-up stretching and ends with some cool-down stretching. (I tend to stretch before I drive over though because I need a bit more than five minutes worth to get my tendons ready, haha.) I hear they do student showcases and photoshoots sometime and I hope to participate one day! The parking situation is really the only negative, and what can you do if you're located in downtown? It's street parking only, and Cedar Ave. can get pretty packed in places. This is made more challenging during winter time, as the snow banks obstruct parking.

My friend and I decided to take the drop-in pole dancing classes, which were so fun! Just stepping…read moreinto the studio, I felt very welcomed and comfortable. I could tell all the staff were very genuine and unapologetically themselves, which is so refreshing to see. They even had a store pet, Hammy the hamster! The space is decorated with so many cool photos, and there are so many different types of classes you can take. There was a chair dancing lesson going on right before our class. The website has SO many options to choose from. For beginners, drop-in styles are the best for learning the basics. Our instructor, Hassan, was so skilled and kind! He made the class super fun and he especially made it look so easy. We learned 10 different skills within the hour and it was so fun! I want to take different types of classes in the future!

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.