Our Kid Explorer Club s are located in Chicago Park District, YMCA and Chicago Public Schools.

Kid Explorer Club goes from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm 10:00 am to 3:30 pm or  with options of full day for PreK and Kindergarten through  6 grades 2:30 pm to 7:30 pm  available.

The program includes all classroom materials needed.  We request that all Jr Club members please clearly label all of your child’s belongings with their full name to ensure that all belongings can find their way home at the end of the day.

Yes. During the registration process, you’ll be asked to enter your Club member’s rising grade. This will select their age group and the available programs at that rising grade level. This is to ensure a developmentally-appropriate curriculum and experience for Club members of all ages.

Just click on ENROLL and you will be taken to Kid Explorer Club  Club site login and registration.  4-H stands for Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. 4-H-membmembers pledge ” My head to clearer thinking; my heart to greater loyalty; my hands to larger sevice; my health to better living for my club, communication.

Yes! Kid Explorer Club members has a wide variety of Club s for every interest and our average Club members enrolls in up to 36 weeks sessions per school year. Many of our Jr Club members enroll for 16-36 weeks giving them the chance to build long-lasting friendships and develop new skills, such as swimming and the Kid Explorer Club  reading enrichment is also in their daily schedule.. We offer the flexibility one-week sessions to allow families to tailor their summer Club  experience to their schedule.

Please Note: Parent must be receiving TANF/RASP or working and/ or in school/training to qualify. Upon clicking on Join Now button to register you will complete information required and you must click yes for financial assistance to be sent an electronic New application (and change of provider form) via email.

Follow these instructions:

Fill out the information that pertains to your family and sign with your e signature. Type N/A (Not Applicable) in every space that does not apply to you. You will receive a confirmation email upon completion and you will receive a copy in your email. SCAN or take a picture of verification documents needed to complete your application. Examples: School letterhead with days and hours of classes and/ or check stubs dated from the last 30 days. Remember, incomplete applications can add an additional two or more weeks for processing. It will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.
Important: Please email all additional information that is required as an attachment (scanned documents or pictures are acceptable). Email attachments to: enroll@kidexplorercamps.com

We do. Always check the website or call the Kid Explorer Club customer service for availability as programs do reach capacity for many weeks. We encourage parents to register for programs in advance, but we understand that for unforeseen reasons, parents sometimes need to register at the last minute. If you find yourself in this situation, you can enroll online only up until 7:30 am on Monday mornings before Club program begins for programs that have availability.

All Club members will have to complete the necessary forms in order to participate in Kid Explorer Club before their first week of the program. These forms are required by both the county and the state in all of our Club locations.

Once you register and pay for your Club program(s), you will receive a confirmation email for your own records.  For those applying for financial assistance you will receive confirmation of receipt of application, but approval communications will come from Act for Children.  In addition to that confirmation email, you will receive a pre-program email the week before your session(s) of program. This email will provide you with all necessary information including: what to bring to Club, directions, links to our blogs and more.

You are able to upload all your Club members’ health forms through the link to the Parent Dashboard, located on the homepage. Once there, select the “Forms” tab to either fill out or upload the required forms.

Yes. Buddy requests can be made during the registration process until classes are full. We always do our very best to accommodate buddy requests as we know how important this can be to our Club members. The number of buddies that we guarantee varies by both Club member’s age and the program for which you’re enrolling — please see our full Buddy Policy & Philosophy for details.

For new Club members we administer two tests on Monday.

Swim vest test: This test determines whether your Club member needs to wear a vest during recreational swim (Multi-Sport Club only). The test involves swimming from one end of the pool to the other (typically 25 yards) without touching the pool wall or lap lane.

Aquatics level test: (Junior Club X ONLY): This test determines the aquatics level of your Club members, and it involves measuring level-specific skills and comfort in the pool.

Yes — over the course of the summer, we’ll distribute (via email) Swim Logs for all Club members in programs with instructional swimming that have updates for the skills that your Club member worked on as well as notes on their proficiency and progress. These reports are meant to provide feedback to both Club members and parents to aid Club members along their developmental journey as swimmers. The swim log will also touch on the Kid Explorer Club X 9, and each Club member’s growth and progress with these in the context of swimming, along with the swim-specific skills that they work on at Club.

Families with children who have peanut or nut allergies can feel safe and comfortable at Kid Explorer Club programs. We are well aware of the dangers and concerns with severe allergies and take our allergy procedures and systems very seriously.

Our Process:
If your child requires an EpiPen at Club, we ask you to place the EpiPen in a clear plastic bag along with a head shot photo of your child, noting the name of your child on the outside of the bag. This bag (and any necessary instructions) should be presented to the Kid Explorer Club Safety and Staff Coordinator on location, upon check-in on Monday morning. Upon registration (and in the morning of each Club day), Kid Explorer Club   Safety Specialists take special note of our Club members with allergies by placing a mandatory, but inconspicuous, colored bracelet around each child’s wrist, as well as placing their EpiPen or other medication in a bag that stays on their counselor at all times throughout the Club day. We highly recommend that all EpiPens and any additional medication stay on location throughout the week. Our counselors in charge of Club members with life-threatening allergies wear a first-aid fanny pack at all times containing their Club members EpiPen. Any additional medication and necessary instructions for that medication stays with your child at all times.

Our Nut-Free Policy:
During both lunch and snack breaks, to prevent contact with any nut products, we have a designated nut-free area. We require our Club members who have nut allergies, peanut or tree nut, to eat meals in our nut-free area during lunch and snack. We take special care not to make the Club members with allergies feel alienated during our eating breaks, and we encourage these Club members to invite a friend to sit with them at lunch, provided their friend’s lunch is also nut-free. At least one Kid Explorer Club staff/counselor is seated at each nut-free area for the duration of the lunch period, and these counselors take care to not bring an item to the table that could cause an allergic reaction. If you would prefer your child to sit at a non nut-free area please complete our Allergy-Free Table Waiver* prior to attending Club . To ensure that our Club membmembers with allergies at our nut-free area have a safe lunch experience at Club , we ask that absolutely no nuts, nut related products or alternative nut products, such as soy, cashew, pistachio, walnut, almond or sun buttmembers be permitted. At the end of each eating period, we require all Club membmembers to wash their hands with soap and warm water to ensure they thoroughly clean their hands prior to their next activity.

If you have any questions about our policies, please feel free to contact the Kid Explorer Club  Customer Service Team at (773) 672-7773.

*Allergy-Free Table: Release Waiver > Submit Via Online Form:
Click here for the form for all Kid Explorer Club  Program sites.

In each Kid Explorer Club program, we provide a unique environment where Club members are able to benefit from individual and small group learning and instruction. Each individual program is supervised and run by a leadership team member (Program Leader) to ensure consistency and proper supervision. For our younger Club members, we aim to maintain a counselor to Club member ratio of approximately 1:6. For our older 1 through 6 grades, that ratio is 1:8. Junior Club members (Pre-K and K) are limited to 18 and 24 Club members respectively to ensure both an appropriate ratio and also facilitate Club member interaction and development.

Safety is our number one priority at all times, and we are extremely mindful of the weather. If we see or hear a thunderstorm approaching, outdoor Club programs are immediately brought inside as we take extreme precaution to ensure that all outdoor Club  programs are safe.

We’re well aware that the summer heat can drain a Club member throughout the day and week. Water is always available for each Club program and Club members are encouraged to take water breaks approximately every 15-20 minutes. We take the heat, the humidity index, and the air quality index seriously. Daily, the Executive Director of Kid Explorer Club s communicates with the Site Directors at each Club location to discuss the heat and air index. On extremely hot days (Code Red) and for those Club members spending the majority of their time playing outdoors, participants will take mandatory and extended breaks throughout the day, an extended lunch break, plenty of water and misting fan breaks, and lower impact activities during the day.

In addition, we ensure that sunscreen is re-applied on your Club member multiple times throughout the day. We typically plan to re-apply sunscreen every 2 hours. We always have sunscreen on-site if your Club member forgets or loses their sunscreen. All sunscreen applications are logged in our Sunscreen Log Book so that we can easily monitor all Club members. Please see our sunscreen for more information.