Lil’ Kickers

At a school fundraiser event, I bought a certificate for a class that had been donated. I was told that the person who solicited the certificate on behalf of the school specifically asked if the certificate could be used for the Northbrook location at the Accelerated Center and that the person at Lil’ Kickers agreed. (The person who solicited the donation was a volunteer parent and had no reason to misremember this conversation). When I went to use the certificate, the Northbrook location would not honor it because they said the city location was a different franchise. Obviously, there was a miscommunication somewhere, but I was incredibly disappointed with both «franchises» responses (particularly Northbrook). I have twins and I was going to pay for the other class out of pocket. Victoria (the manager in Northbrook) was very unhelp and short sighted and didn’t offer any kind of solution but told me that the parent who got the donation would pay me back because the volunteer parent felt bad. This parent did call me and offer to pay us back. Of course, this was not a real solution. (I only hope lil’ kickers doesn’t take the tax write off for their useless donation).
Another reviewer mentioned that they had a better experience with the Chicago location, which is great, because I don’t feel like I am missing out on anything in the suburbs. We will stick with Little Legends in Highland Park where our experience with the instructors has been fantastic.

My son (almost 4) has been doing Lil’ Kickers for over a year now at the Accelerated Center (Old Willow Rd) and loves it. The class sizes are normally small (typically 4 – 6 kids) and most the time they have at least 2 instructors per class. My son also loves the uniform that he got!

Some things are just better in the city & Lil’ Kickers happens to be one of them. Back when we were city dwellers we signed my daughter up for Lil’ Kickers* at Bradley Place. She had a blast running around «playing» soccer. And we loved getting pictures of her in her adorable uniform. The class was very consistent– same instructors every week and same exact activities so she always knew what was coming next, which (like all toddlers) made her feel comfortable.
A few months ago I decided to check out this Lil Kickers in the burbs. I was bummed to hear they don’t give you a uniform like they do in the burbs. If you want one you have to actually buy it, but fortunately ours still fit from the city days. My husband went to the majority of the classes and said he wasn’t nearly as impressed. There seemed to be a different instructor each week, there wasn’t much structure and the class wasn’t able to keep my daughter’s attention for very long. When I finally took her to class I had to agree with all my husband’s sentiments. There’s not much organization here. In fact, when my stepdad took my daughter last weekend she insisted that she was in a different class than she actually is… and no one seemed to notice there that she was in the wrong class of much older kids.
It definitely is a good option if you want your kid to run around for 45 minutes (especially in the winter) and for that reason I won’t be opposed to giving Lil’ Kickers another shot with my son when he’s old enough. However, they could definitely use a few organizational tips from their city sister.
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