And more than a handful wait until the last minute, she said. For parents who plan far enough in advance, Champaign and Urbana park districts and the YMCA offer a number of general day camps and activity-specific day camps for youngsters interested in sports, art or music. These programs fill up quickly, Zehr warned. Boys and girls clubs have summer programs and the UI has summer classes for school-age children.
Some schools also have summer-school programs.
And every year some area businesses and organizations offer camp programs. A sports-equipment store might offer a sports camp, for example, Zehr said. But for many parents, it means patching together a hodgepodge of activities, with part of the day and part of the summer at a camp, then at a home day-care provider or center. That can mean the program runs as few as two weeks. So parents must enroll their children for consecutive sessions, make other arrangements, or find themselves without a place to send their offspring after just a few weeks.