A Complete Guide About Extracurricular Activities for Kids

Making your child stand out can be incredibly challenging in a world of eight billion people and millions of gifted children. Teaching them essential life skills can also be a nightmare and shouldn’t be left entirely to schools.

Namely, schools aren’t the only way to improve your child’s skills and increase their chances in life. That’s where extracurricular activities for kids come in, which will be a topic of our discussion for today.

Stay with us to discover extracurricular activities and learn more about their benefits for your child’s development.

By definition, extracurricular activities occur outside of a child’s or teen’s school routine. Anything that doesn’t have a connection to the established school curriculum can be an extracurricular activity, hence the name. These include sports, clubs, organizations, arts, volunteering, outdoor activities, etc.

Whether it’s a young child in elementary school, a teen nearing college, or a college student about to graduate, these activities can be highly beneficial and serve various purposes in a person’s development – here’s what they can do for kids:

Develop skills – kids involved in any extracurricular activity can develop various skills, which depend on the activity type, and which can serve them later in life. They also develop these skills much faster than their peers. These skills include physical ones, like strength and agility; artistic ones, like design and drawing; leadership skills, like guiding employees; and social ones, like communicating.

Develop character – like the various skill types, these activities can lead to character development and many positive character traits. For example, some activities can lead to the development of empathy and compassion. Such a child will likely grow into a cool-headed, calm person who understands and wants to help others.

Enhance growth – various activities can also benefit development in both physical and emotional meaning. For example, kids in local basketball leagues are likely to be taller than their peers. On the other hand, other activities, such as arts and crafts or debate, can affect emotional growth, whereas children will quickly learn their talents and strengths.

Increase confidence – discovering talents and strengths leads to higher self-esteem and confidence, which can be a fantastic trait in all aspects of life. Namely, children participating in extracurricular activities will likely do better in school, have more friends, deal with social interactions much easier, reach their milestones faster, and work quickly toward their goals.

Reduce stress – the saying “those that work hard need to play hard” is entirely truthful and essential even for children. Although school achievements and grades are vital, a child only thinking about those aspects will quickly start feeling burnt out. Thus, extracurricular activities can also serve as a way of alleviating that stress and focusing on something else, which can bring joy.

Increase overall well-being – physically challenging activities can be incredibly beneficial as they’re a healthy way of unwinding and releasing stress and pent-up energy. Similarly, mental activities can improve children’s mental health, bringing various experiences and benefits such as higher dopamine levels and a sense of fulfillment.

Improve college applications – being at the top of your class at school is no longer enough to get into a good college. Today, children need “a resume” of extracurricular activities and other achievements on top of their excellent performance at school. These activities can often be used on a CV as a stepping stone toward getting the desired career.

There isn’t any one perfect extracurricular activity that will match every child’s interests and give them all the benefits. Instead, there are hundreds to choose from, and you can pick them according to your child’s age.

• Extracurricular Activities for Preschoolers

Preschoolers love getting messy and running around, so arts and crafts, gardening and nature exploration, sports, and even science classes can be the perfect options for this age group. On the other hand, music, ballet, other forms of dancing, drama, storytelling, and foreign language classes also work well with these kids.

• Extracurricular Activities for Middle Schoolers

Middle schoolers are a bit more serious of a group, and their perfect activities often include various school clubs, such as debate, drama, chess, dungeons & dragons, etc. They also love being on sports teams and practicing baseball, basketball, volleyball, football, etc. Similarly, foreign language, math, science, and even cooking classes can be a great choice, too.

• Extracurricular Activities for Teens

Kids get deeper into activities during their teen years when many have found their calling and know what they want to become. That’s why leadership roles in student governments, debate and public speaking clubs, model UN, and journalism activities also become popular. Moreover, internships and volunteering are also excellent options.

Getting started is the most challenging part, and instilling a habit in your child can be difficult. However, you can try many things to get your kid started with these activities.

First, you’ll want to talk with them and learn more about their interests or hobbies. After finding that out, you can find matching activities around the school or neighborhood.

When these are sorted, you can take your kid to an introductory class and see whether they’re interested. If they are, you’re in luck, and you can start thinking about schedules and transportation and let the kid get started with the activity.

If they aren’t, other activities might grab their attention more. Be supportive, start slowly, and manage your expectations.

It’s also worth noting that more and more children spend hours on phones, wasting their time and potential on mind-numbing apps that do no good for their development. On the other hand, parents let this happen, allowing children to continue this behavior.

Although phones aren’t entirely awful, as many useful apps and games can enhance the child’s mental development, the physical development aspect suffers a lot. That’s why there’s a need to limit children’s screen time and allow them to focus on other beneficial activities, which you can do with Wondershare FamiSafe.

It’s a parental control app that lets you gain insight into your child’s web, YouTube, and TikTok history, put web filters, enable safe browsing, and limit screen time. The app has inappropriate content filters and can even let you geo-locate your child so you, as a parent, can relax about where they are and what they’re doing.

Picking out a suitable extracurricular activity for your kid can be challenging, as there are plenty of those, and your kid might get bored of some after a while. That’s why learning about their interests and skills and assessing their strengths is essential.

It’s worth mentioning you can’t make a mistake as it can all count toward experience. Many options remain even if your kid tries a specific activity and doesn’t like it after a while.

Moreover, keeping expectations realistic, being supportive as a parent, and organizing their schedule and transport can also be highly beneficial.

Young kids and teens can engage in various extracurricular activities outside of school to learn valuable life skills and improve their chances of success. They can develop multiple skills, reduce stress, improve their physical and mental health, and even be used for college applications.

However, getting your child started with a new activity can be challenging. It involves a lot of understanding, planning, logistics, and support. Moreover, it involves shifting your child’s focus to things that matter, which you can do by limiting their screen time with FamiSafe and guiding them toward appropriate activities depending on their age.