Extra-Curricular Activities That Can Help Your Child Build Life Skills

It is more often than not that parents are completely out of ideas of how to keep their children occupied. Children are hyperactive and very curious. It’s important for parents to help their children find activities that are worth their while and help them build life skills.

How do most children spend their free time?

Children usually play among themselves, but there are times when they want to be a part of an engaging extra-curricular activity. There are moments such as summer vacation and the weekends when kids find themselves idle and bored.

Children of the digital age have grown up very tech savvy and like most of us, tend to reach for our tablets and mobile phones when they’re bored, This damages their eyes and causes their posture to deteriorate since kids tend to slump and slouch while spending hours on their gadgets going through endless streams of content.

Engaging kids at home can be challenging. Parents tend to let children be by themselves left in front of a television or laptop screen because it keeps them quiet and occupied, this way they stay out of trouble and don’t cause a ruckus. Unfortunately, kids don’t learn anything informative or educational through this.

How will my child make time for extra-curricular activities in her/his busy schedule?

Yes, it’s true that parents and children share the same tension when it comes to this question. While extra-curricular are a crucial part of your child’s development, it is very possible that they may not be able to keep up with a few extra activities with consistency. So how can you help as a parent?

There are some fun activities that parents and kids can do together, if your child struggles to make time between their school, homework, tuition and projects, help them structure their daily timetable.

 They should know that they don’t have to adhere strictly to a timetable of hobbies. After all, there is no deadline for passion! The extra-curricular activities are a means to relax and are only beneficial if your child is having fun!

There are so many fun summer/winter courses and camps that you can enrol children in. This makes for a memorable and educational experience, while also providing them with the break they need.

There are many activities that keep children occupied but let them learn an activity or build upon an important life skill. If you want to keep them occupied, but in a productive fashion, talk to them about hobby classes such as drawing and extra courses.

The importance of extra-curricular activities for kids

Extra-curricular activities help children develop their personalities, and hobbies and help them use their time productively and resourcefully. This is also an excellent way for kids to meet like-minded people and bond over common interests. Extra-curricular activities also contribute to your holistic development and growth at a growing age.

Extra-curricular activities provide children with an outlet to practice their social skills and academic abilities in the real world. Here is a list of extra-curricular activities you may want to enrol your child into –

Sports Clubs

Sports and Physical activities are some of the best stress-busting activities for children to participate in! Children used to be very excited to go downstairs to play with their friends. Unfortunately, that doesn’t happen so much anymore. Children prefer to play video games, online games are just doing chores at home.

Playing sports teaches children important life lessons such as teamwork, self-confidence, responsibility, and self-discipline. Sports in school help prepare children for real-life challenges too. They enhance their motor skills and keep them mentally active and fit as well.

Nature Clubs

Nature Clubs are important to instil a sense of appreciation and conservation for the environment in children. Children of today will become the decision-makers and opinion leaders of tomorrow, therefore it is paramount that they understand how important environmental conservation is to society.

Nature Clubs help children appreciate the rich and diverse fauna and flora of their home country and their home planet. It sensitizes and educates kids about nature. To create awareness among society about the environment and related issues. Nature Clubs are often already a part of school activities.

Book Clubs

Books clubs are lots of fun for literature and story-telling enthusiasts! They work as an excellent channel to help children get into the habit of reading. Book clubs help children explore the depths of literature and develop a deeper understanding of what they’re reading.

Books Clubs can also get together to discuss movies, plays, poems and even the news. Reading a kids news website can help children connect to the outside world and understand the pattern of how life imitates art and how art imitates life too.

Summer Camp

Summer Camps are a great opportunity to explore the wilderness for kids. If your child has an adventurous side and loves to explore and travel, you should sign them up for a cool summer camp!

This presents them with the opportunity to leave their phones at home and spend time with other children their age from all over the country. It provides great exposure and builds their survival, reflexive as well as social skills.

Astronomy Club

Whether it is Sun, Moon, Solar System, far away galaxies, or extraterrestrial beings, there is so much to explore outside our home planet, Earth. Astronomy Clubs help kids get interested in stars, constellations, meteors and telescopes. It’s a very interesting and rare hobby to have!

Many schools have astronomy clubs where students can use resources like encyclopedias, special literature on astronomy and even a super telescope! Astronomy Clubs can plan day excursions to the planetariums in their city.

Science and Technology Clubs

Considering kids today have been acquainted with technology since they were tiny tots, they have a natural curiosity and inclination towards ever-changing technology. They are quite tech-savvy and many of them already know they want to pursue a career in science and technology when they grow up.

S&T Clubs can help children take interest in engineering, robotics, artificial intelligence and even astronautics. If your child expresses genuine interest in any of these fields, it’s a great idea to give them a push into thinking about joining a Science and Technology club!

Abacus classes

Abacus is a very handy skill to learn. It is a mental math system that makes calculations for kids easy and fun. It has significant benefits for children such as improving their photographic memory, visualisation, and calculation speed. This helps them become more accurate and quick with mental maths, a function they will exercise life long.

Crafts, pottery, and sculpting classes

These are extremely fun and hands-on workshops to enrol your child into if they enjoy being artsy and using their hands to create things. This is a fun activity for parents to do with their children as well. Here they can learn how to creatively decorate their rooms, notebooks and projects.

These hands-on activities help them remember and follow instructions more clearly. Before you know it, your little one might be making beautiful pots and sculptures to decorate your house with!

Dance Classes

Dance classes are a very creative way for your child to remain active and also learn a dance form. Dance is a dynamic experience and a great way to exercise. This helps children increase their flexibility and learn self-discipline. Dance forms like ballet, contemporary, jazz, kathak, and Bharatnatyam help children become graceful dancers and even performers.

Dancing is a very useful skill and children can make use of this in school and inter-school competitions and annual functions.

Coding classes

Through coding, children learn how to solve problems in a new and interesting way. Coding also enables kids to find out-of-the-box solutions to difficult problems. This problem-solving technique can be applied in other situations of their life too.

This is a great course for kids who are interested in software development and engineering. Children who are fascinated with computer and phone apps will have a very educational experience about how said applications are actually written in code and then fleshed out into a user experience on our electronic devices.

Also Read: Kindergarten Registration Checklist

Conclusion

Well, there you have it! Some interesting classes, courses and camps that children who possess a diverse range of interests can really immerse themselves into. As kids get older, their do-list gets busy and hectic, just like the rest of us!

 Childhood is a very beautiful time of life when they can take things slowly and develop their interests organically. It’s very important that parents are supportive of their child’s new dreams and endeavours. Parents are their child’s first role model and are often the channel through which a child learns about the big world and all its possibilities! If they see their parents indulging in their own extra-curricular activities like sports or meeting up with their friends, exercising or doing volunteering and social work, they will also learn how important these activities are to maintain a healthy balance between work and play.

 Parents should keep in mind to encourage their child’s extra-curricular activities and give a lot of importance to socialising and bonding amongst their peers. This prepares them for the social world and moulds them into polite, empathetic individuals.