Should you sign your kids up for an extracurricular activity? Most parents as well as kids benefit from an extracurricular activity. This gives the child a chance to interact with other children, as well as increase self-esteem. Extra-curricular activities are a great way for a child to learn new hobbies and skills. In addition, some extra-curricular activities can even turn into providing your child with great on the job experience, as even some job opportunities that can make money instead of just costing money.
Extra-curricular activities also have the wonderful benefit of they help teach and emphasize teamwork. Sports especially push teamwork, which is something that adults use in normal every day life whether they are using teamwork in their families or teamwork at the office on a project. Allowing kids to learn teamwork while they are younger gives them great opportunities to master the skills needed to successfully utilize teamwork as an adult.
Self-confidence can also greatly improve if a child is involved in an extra-curricular activity that they enjoy. People typically excel in things they enjoy, so if they enjoy their activity they are more likely to put the effort into it to become great. Thus becoming great at their activity helps increase their self-confidence.
Kids who are involved in extra-curricular activities also tend to be well adjusted to adapting to new environments and people. Sports, photography, dance, cheerleading are all examples of activities that involve meeting new people. Aside from meeting new people, activities also provide a great way to go new places. I remember fondly several trips I took with my dance classes that I enjoyed greatly and learned a lot.
Kids who are in extra-curricular activities are also more likely to be exposed to new cultures. It is not just the American children who play sports; there are some Asians as well as Hispanics who play sports. These activities help teach the kids to interact with each other on a good positive basis, instead of having the problems of not knowing how to act around each other.
Once a child is applying for college, the schools look happily upon the applications from students who have had extra-curricular activities. They tend to give more weight to them, compared to a similar application with no extra-curricular activities. As you can see, the activities provide a great many benefits, to both parents as well as the children who actively participate.
Parents are also able to network with other parents who have kids involved in the same activities, which enables the parents to make new connections and friendships. They are able to cheer their child on at their first recital or game. They are able to awe over the beautiful pictures their child took, or the wonderful music their child can play. There are even some families who devote a good majority of their time to extra-curricular activities, you have seem them, the cars driving down the road with numerous “Proud Parent” stickers, and team logo’s with a jersey number. To those parents nothing is better than a good extra-curricular activity. The trick is finding the perfect match for your individual child. You want something that will help your child grow and stretch, yet not too difficult that they feel like they are a failure.
