One primary question that a parent always has is which are the best extracurricular activities for kids, how to select one, and what are the factors need to be considered while choosing one.
This blog will answer all these queries of yours.
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What are extracurricular activities for kids?
Let’s start with understanding what are extracurricular activities, and what is their purpose. These are the activities that are not part of the child’s curriculum and don’t provide any academic credits. Extracurricular activities for kids are an integral part of their development. It is important that kids take up activities that are constructive, and interesting for them, and help them develop skills that are complementary to the skills they learn through their academic curriculum. The importance of these activities is immense, these activities help in a child’s overall development.
Do you know, that Sachin Tendulkar, started playing cricket when he was 11 years old, Bill Gates coded for the first time when he was 13 years old, and Lata Mangeshkar started learning vocals when she was just 4 years old. It is known that many such great personalities have started very early in their lives with their respective activities. These activities became their passion, and now that is what they are known for in the world.
How to select an extracurricular activity for your child?
Every child is different and has a different personality. Therefor children need different extracurricular activities, which interest them, are constructive for them, and add value to their life. Often children pick up these activities on their own, by looking at what other kids are doing, or what is introduced in the school, or something which they love doing. It is important to help them select the right activity according to their interests, passion, and relevance in the world. With a number of activities, it is becoming extremely difficult to choose the activities in the first place.
In order to select the right one, you should do the following:
Check for the interest area of your child
The interest in the extracurricular activity is highly relevant, for making the right choice. It is important that your child enjoys what he/she does. Remember, in childhood when there is some activity which you were interested in, you would be eagerly waiting for it. The amount of excitement and satisfaction you get from that activity-filled you with energy to perform other daily chores too. The right activity will enhance your kid’s productivity in other areas as well.
Assess the value addition of the activity to your child’s overall development
The next factor to consider is the value addition that it does to your child’s overall development. The activity should add a complementary skill set to your child’s life which is missing in curriculum-based education. For eg: if your child’s school doesn’t have much practical learning, you should look for activities that focus on practical learning, or if they don’t focus on arts or music, you may opt for that.
Relevance for the future
We all know that a child’s time is limited and there are multiple options available. Preparing children for the future is one of the most important things which a parent has in his/her mind. You should therefore also consider the relevance of the extracurricular activity with the future goals your child/you might have planned. For example for a child looking to pursue engineering as a discipline for higher studies, STEM-related extracurricular activities will be relevant.
Which are the best extracurricular activities?
You may have to prioritise one of the factors over the other, according to your need and the child’s interest. On the basis of our research following are the best extracurricular activities for kids
Activity 1: Sports
Sports is any activity that involves physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against each other for entertainment. There are multiple sports activities that the child can pursue, including athletics, and team sports like football, basketball, cricket, etc. Nowadays, Sports activities are becoming an integral part of the in-school activities too.
What value does it add?
Sports activities & games for kids are a source of developing all-pervasive skills needed to support them in a lifetime. They help in developing team-building skills, enhance communication and teach how to react in challenging situations. Sports allow children to unlock the physical aspect of their growth and help in the overall development of the child. It focuses on all the there aspects we discussed.
You can select from multiple sports available, according to the feasibility and accessibility for your kid.
Activity 2: STEM Courses
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. As technological development is advancing, humans are getting dependent on it. The advancement in science, technology, and engineering has made human life far easier. Due to similar reasons STEM courses are becoming one of the top extracurricular choices for parents. It is not only necessary to understand the basic concepts behind these objects and technologies which are changing our surroundings, but it is a very relevant topic from the perspective of your kid’s future.
What value does it add?
STEM courses add a practical aspect to your child’s learning. It includes robotics, coding, science experiments, etc, which children do in a collaborative environment with their peers, adding multiple skills to their personality such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, confidence, etc. These activities also improve child’s logical thinking, as they solve real-world problems through these projects. This also complements the school education, as it helps in learning through doing things.
There are multiple options to start with. Wiingy: The Technology School is one such option, which provides live classes on Robotics, Coding, and Science through a practical learning approach. You can check out the website to get started. Do check out our Youtube Channel to check what our Wiingy champs are building.
Activity 3: Music and Dance
Music & Dance includes playing musical instruments (Guitar, Piano, Drums, etc), learning different dance forms (classical, breakdance, hip-hop, salsa, etc), and singing different types of music (Classical, Pop, Rap). It is one of the most popular extracurricular activities for kids considered by parents across the globe.
What value does it add?
Music and dance act as a medium for expression for kids. It engages their brain and helps cultivate communication skills, foster physical skills and helps in increasing motor movements of the kid. Music and dance are fun, and add a creative aspect to your child’s life.
You can check if your child is interested in music & dance, and enroll them in multiple offline courses available. If there are interested in dance, you can approach the nearest dance school, and get your child enrolled.
Activity 4: Painting & Sketching
Painting and sketching are the art of representing our surroundings on a piece of paper, through drawing objects, and ideas. Painting and Sketching are also getting included in the school curriculum in multiple ways. These extracurricular activities for kids are popular in the early part of their education, where they were majorly taught through visual representations, and asked to draw the same.
What value does it add?
Painting aids your child to develop mobility skills. Their hand muscles are being used, which allows them a scope to develop both mentally and physically. It also helps kids in acquiring skills on how to focus on details, and understand their surroundings better.
There are many youtube channels that you can check out for getting your kids started with painting and sketching tutorials.
Activity 5: Reading books
Reading books is one of the most interesting extracurricular activities for kids in the current times. Due to the advancement of the internet, books are accessible to everyone like never before. Schools also have libraries for children to give them exposure to various fields. Kids can read a plethora of topics including, poetry, storybooks, general knowledge books, biographies, etc.
What value does it add?
Reading books helps in diversifying your kid’s perspective and getting to learn new things, which are not being taught at school. It increases their concentration and creativity, as they get to know about multiple new ideas, which they can use to create their own ideas.
There are multiple e-book sources including Amazon Store, and Library Genesis, where you can find books for your kids. Helping them build a habit to read will surely help your child in long run.
To complement traditional reading practices, consider integrating modern tools like LUCA.ai, a reading fluency and proficiency platform, which offers interactive ways to learn kids’ words ending A to Z while enhancing their overall reading experience.
There are multiple other options that are also available for your kid to pursue. We have tried our best to cover the best options, In order to read more interesting articles like these, do follow our social media pages [ Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin ], and blogs.
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