Aqua - Tots Swim School Bellevue

My daughter was nervous about swimming. We had tried ourselves to teach her. Within only 2 months going, taking 2 classes a week, she advanced to the next level and is working on swimming on her own better. All of her instructors have taken time with each kid, are always happy/friendly, make the classes fun and encourage the kids and use positive reinforcement with them. My daughter is flourishing and we are so sad that we'll have to stop lessons when we move. I definitely recommend them. They do dunk your child under the water to help teach them how to hold their breath correctly and so they aren't scared of their faces under the water. My daughter caught on how to hold her breath quickly and can now hold it for a full 15 count while floating unassisted on her stomach face in the water. They also teach skills to make sure your child can get in and out of the pool easily. So they have the skills to hopefully not drown if something happened.

Today was our first lesson. At the beginning of the lesson, I tried to express a concern with the instructor regarding my son's tendency to swallow/choke on water but he wasn't interested and closed the door before I had completed my sentence. Both of my kids are afraid to put their faces in the water. They each told the instructors they weren't comfortable going under water. Instead of giving my kids some time to get used to the water, they "assisted" them under water no less than 10 times during the lesson. My kids cried throughout most of the lesson but the dunking continued. I am an early childhood teacher and am well aware that forcing children to do something they are not developmentally ready to do is not the way to teach. After the lesson, I explained to their instructor/regional district manager that Aqua-Tots isn't a good fit for us. He refused to let us out of our contract stating that he has "been doing this for 10 years and knows that my kids will adjust to his way of teaching". Be that as it may, my goal is for my children to learn to swim and develop a lifelong love of the water. Instead, my kids are now terrified at the thought of swimming lessons. If you are considering taking lessons here, please request a trial lesson to see if it is a good fit for your child's individual learning style. I wasn't offered one and was unaware it was even an option until today. Because of Aqua-Tot's unwillingness to offer us a trial lesson and the way they disregarded my children's requests not to be forced under water, we are out about $200 and our kids are now afraid of the water.

We signed our 2 grandsons for swim lessons in Oct 2022, for 8 lessons, we did not know the credit card was recurring every month, we left for Florida and my daughter in law signed a 30 day waiver in early December 2022, it is now January 04 2023, just received another credit card charge, kelly at bellevue location said her boss told her we signed a contract, I will cancel credit card, I just want people to be aware of what they sign , we were never told of this, they are not a business of integrity, but the swim instructors are awesome