Little Fish Swim School

This place is absolutely delightful. It's a beautiful set up in a quiet neighborhood so expect less "YMCA" and more "nice little pool inside a comfortable enclosure surrounded by beautiful gardens". In these troubled times they are making the pool available for individual groups to use alone and hence safely, so we did not meet the staff. However, judging by their signage and arrangements for changing, etc, I expect they are very polite, considerate, and very concerned for their guests' safety. I haven't been swimming since before covid, and this was the best return to the water I could have hoped for.

Little Fish is a local swim school that has a few locations, but this one is in Northgate. There are a few parking spots outside that you can't miss, along with lots of street parking. A few signs and a fish statue lead the way to the backyard of the house where the pool is. It's pretty well kept as it's under a greenhouse structure. They have a bathroom and changing room available right next to it. The staff here are super nice and try to keep the schedule on time. They definitely help kids get used to the water all the way up to practicing certain strokes or moves. Would highly recommend a few lessons here for young ones.

We recently moved to Seattle from San Francisco. Because of the pandemic, huge wait-lists for swim lessons, and juggling care of toddler twins, my 6 year old daughter not taken formal swim classes since she was very little. We have been so happy with our first 2 lessons at Little Fish!! My daughter is super shy. Lori and Jess were so gentle and patient with her. She now says that loves swimming, and can't wait for her next lesson!!

We have been very pleased with our experience at Little Fish Swim School. Our 6 year old son has a lot of anxiety and is very sensitive. Previous swim lessons elsewhere had been very scary for him and he had refused to put his face in the water. We just completed our 4th lesson with Emily and he swam across the pool underwater unassisted! Amazing!! Although it hasn’t been easy for him, and he still has some anxiety about it, Emily’s firm but kind approach worked for him and he feels so proud of himself. The short private lessons are hard work, fun, methodical, and never stop moving. We appreciate the convenient location, parking, and truly private experience with just one child at a time in the quiet pool. Don’t balk at the price, it’s worth every penny and more!

Emily and her instructors give one-on-one swim lessons all year round in a safe, kind, and productive environment. My son has been taking lessons here for all nearly 2 years and he's learned basic strokes, breathing techniques, and most importantly the love of water and swimming! Emily and her team come highly recommended - 5 stars! Bonus: the pool is nice and warm!

This place(these places) fall under hidden gem category: pools in people's backyards where you can take lessons (group to private) from super friendly, effective swim teachers, and rent THE WHOLE POOL to yourself of you like. Their website is a little hard to use from a mobile imo but worth it. My kid finally got over their fear of water/swimming and is a confident, safe swimmer who's comfortable in the water. Thank you, jes!

I love that the lessons are private as my son does much better with one on one learning. I love that there is a greenhouse that keeps the pool area warm so that swimming lessons can take place in Winter. I have many issues and dislikes that I feel are important to share before parents spend money on this program. Because it is so popular, classes fill up really fast and you never know when you may be able to get another one, you aren’t guaranteed to work with the same teacher and most of the time I had to schedule for whatever day that was available so I couldn’t schedule, for example, every Tuesday of the week as it was just whatever was available. There could be a couple weeks in between lessons, my son only took 3 lessons due to my concerns and there just not being any availability for months after his package was used up and so my kid would be re-learning everything again each class. I don’t know if teachers take notes about the progress of the kids but it didn’t seem like it. MY BIGGEST issue is that on my son’s very first day the teacher had her back to him and he got inside the pool without her and was under the water flailing around, luckily she turned around pretty quickly and helped him out. He was able to continue the class with no tears thankfully but he is now afraid to jump in the water even with floaties on like he used to and doesn’t even want to try to swim without his floaties. He used to have no fear of the water and loved putting his head underwater and even though he is always supervised and an adult is always in the pool with him, he just refuses to try to swim without floaties and says “I don’t want to sink again like I did at swim class.” Of course because classes are totally full I haven’t even bothered to put him back in class to hopefully reverse this fear he has by learning to swim. My son still doesn’t know how to swim and doesn’t remember any skills he learned only that he “sank”.

This business is a noisy intrusion to what should be a quiet neighborhood. Owner is very noisy when teaching classes despite being reminded that her neighbors are very distressed by her activities. Large green house covering pool looks like a monument to megalomania. Nice business if you can just show up with your kids for 30 minutes and then go back to your quiet home. UPDATE: Three years later the owner of this pool has doubled down on their hostilities by operating seven days a week, twelve hours a day. Early mornings are reserved for screaming babies and early evenings for pool parties. Even though it is illegal to run a business out of your house in which the noise carries over the property line, this is Seattle afterall, a city that allows dangerous drugs to be consumed on city streets. When you are forced to live in a city that has the morals of Nazis, expect to be destroyed.

We highly recommend this swim school and Emily! We have had our child in the pool since five months old - some swim lessons at the Y, Little Fish, and even private lessons somewhere else. She loved the water and was comfortable in it, but still was avoiding going underwater and wasn't learning how to really swim. It wasn't until we finally got to Emily at 2 1/2 that she became comfortable going underwater and eventually learned the movement. Emily's background in child development and years of teaching show in her approach to teaching children how to swim. We highly recommend her and her team.

Both of my kiddos learned how to swim at Little Fish. The one on one private pool model was perfect for my easily distractable kids. Booking lessons is easy and flexible, with a 24 hour no penalty cancelation policy. All three locations are quiet and lovely. I recommend trying out a few different instructors to find your match. It's great though, because they don't require any commitment, you can book lessons one at a time as you find availability and things open up all the time due to the cancelation policy. You can even get consistent lessons for the whole season. They will book them all for you for a small extra fee.