Extra curricular activities are a great way for your child to build confidence, make new friends and acquire new skills that they can be proud of. As a parent it’s important to encourage your child to try new activities, without pushing them too hard to take part in things that they just aren’t interested in!
Some of the most valuable extra curricular activities that your child can get involved in are listed here.
Sports
The list of benefits that getting involved in sport of any kind for your child is almost endless!
Firstly, physical activity is really important for a healthy body and a healthy mind. If your child finds a sport that they enjoy, this means that they are more likely to exercise often, which is great for cardiovascular health and is also helpful for mental health issues like anxiety and depression.
If the sport is a team sport, your child will also learn valuable skills such as how to work with others and how to strategize when considering a group of people. These are all things that look great when they come to talk to employers or admissions teams at educational establishments in the future.
It’s because sports are so valuable as part of education that prestigious schools are so focused on offering a wide sporting curriculum.
Volunteering
Volunteering is a great way for your child to give something back to their community, and learn firsthand about how valuable it is to help others. Youth volunteering is also valuable because it gives your child the opportunity to find a cause that they are passionate about, and to make new friends to whom that cause is also important.
Volunteering is also a wonderful way to gain work experience that you just couldn’t get otherwise, which will put them ahead both when they are applying for work and when they are applying for further education.
Writing and journalism
Encouraging your child to write, or even to be part of the school newspaper, is a great opportunity for them to develop their skills with the written word. It’s also a chance for them to flex their problem solving and investigative muscles, and to start developing great instincts in these areas.
Even journaling can be beneficial to teenagers, as it can help to lower stress by giving them an outlet for their thoughts, and help them to get to know themselves better and improve their sense of self.
The arts
The arts are fantastic for children to learn to be creative, and to connect with a group of like minded people. More than this, it helps to teach valuable lessons about perseverance and that it’s OK not to be great at something straight away.
If your child likes the arts, building their skills in this area will be a great source of self-esteem for them, and it will help them to learn the skill of skill-building! This can then be applied in the future when they need to cultivate more skills for their work or just for fun.
