Besides school, what are the best activites to get your kids involved in?

Question

Which sports are the best for kids? What other activities - dance? musical instruments? Scouts? There are so many choices for camps and after-school activites that you can overschedule your kids. Parents please tell us which activities you think are best to raise a happy, healthy, well-rounded kid.

(kids want to do EVERYTHING but not enough time or money to sign up for it all!)

Answer 1

Music and Physical Activities!

Whether your child thinks he or she likes a sport or not, atleast expose him or her to it for a session when he or she is young so the child can make an educated decision. Life long lessons are learned; Life long friendships are developed; skills that a child can carry throughout his or her life are acquired on a little league field. This will keep your child in shape. This will put your child in a position to make friends with other children who come from families that have interests in their childs life, like you do. You will make friends with parents that you will carry throughout your childs journey through school as well.

Music is very important as well. Children that learn how to read music develop highler level reasoning and problem solving skills at an earlier age. Music challenges a child mentally, which carries over to other mental capacities. It, like any other education, is something that can never be taken away from a child. If you have access to a piano, I suggest it. I am told that it is easier to learn to read music from a piano than other instruments. I don't know?

I am 28, and I still play ball. I still play basketball with many of my friends that I developed when I was a young child. I play softball with them as well. (we are too old for hard ball!) I formally learned to play the piano. However, I play the guitar much better and much more today. I have never taken a guitar lesson, but my piano education carried over enough that I was able to teach myself along with learning along with friends.

All of these activities puts your child on the right path. It keeps them heathy and happy. Keeps them away from the tv and video games, drugs, etc. It puts them in contact with good kids. It exposes them to many more people, which broadens their acceptance and popularity in high-school.

I don't know about scouts and dance. I have to think all activities are good though.

Good Luck

Answer 2

Anything within a church. Usually during the summer months and early fall, churches offer (my church at least, and the ones in my area) youth t-ball, basketball,baseball. You didn't exactly specify the sex of your child, but I would definitely suggest scouts and sports while school is out to keep the child busy, or even a summer day camp that offers lots of activities. The best activities are ones that make the child happy and offer lasting life lessons. Being on any sort of team will help the child learn team-work, and commitment lessons. I highly recommend scouts. Every child I have ever met that has done scouts, becomes respectable, and learns to be a responsible adult. Of course there are exceptions to this but scouts are a very good activity for children.

Answer 3

Team sports are great for kids - socialization, team work skills development. Soccer is fun and relatively inexpensive because it doesn't require a lot of equipment like hockey or football. Martial arts are pretty good, too. Something like taekwondo not only introduces the elements of self-defense, but it introduces other things like discipline, commitment, and if you have a good school, community service and academics.

But remember not to overcommit your kids - a full activities schedule with school to take care of as well can really stress out a kid and have adverse effects on academics and behaviour.

Answer 4

SCOUTING!!!! have you read the philosophies behind scouting? It's great for boys or girls, and supports the values I am sure you are trying to instill in your kids as a parent. It's fun for the kids, and they don't even realize that they are learning to be respectful memebers of a community. Aside from the hundreds of special skills they can learn, a basic rule of honesty, respect, fairness, caring for the earth/others/one's community/family and school, are all modeled and upheld. Make sure your troop is registered and legal, since the Boyscouts and Girlscouts of America do background checks on all of their leaders. Be an active parent so you know for sure who the adults are, and have fun. Scouting is a family experience!! I was raised a sister of an Eagle Scout, and have my son in scouting. It has given me so much wonderful experience, i can't wait to pass it on to my son!!

Answer 5

I agree totally with Cing said. I would add though that sometimes you have 2 make them hang with something. My oldest son (13) played soccer for 2 yrs then decided he wanted to try basketball, we let him. Turned out he didn't like b/ball then was left behind on the soccer field, all the kids who stayed with it had gained so much more skill in the yr he tried b/ball he could not keep up. So of course he no longer liked soccer b'c he was the worst kid on the team. Now we are experiencing the same thing with our middle boy. We are going to let him play basketball on the condition that he still plays soccer. Same thing with the paino. The kids like being able to play but don't want to practice. Some times you have to "make" them stick with something otherwise they have tried everything and still don't have a "place".

Answer 6

Martial arts not only teach discipline but it teaches self defense. Children should have creative arts in their lives whether it is ceramics, pottery, painting or whatever. When a child can create something with their own hands and then share that creation with their family it boosts their self esteem. You need to find that one thing that is your child's passion whether it is music, sports, art or whatever and nurture that passion throughout their childhood. Teenagers who have no passion often find it with substance abuse. Most importantly IMO is getting your children to love books. Read to them from birth on for at least 30 minutes a day. Then let them read to you. A great reader can not only escape into a book but will have an easier time throughout their schooling. Whatever activity you and your child chooses to participate in share it with your child.

Answer 7

The Y.M.C.A. is a wonderful program with lots of options for different things to do and the Y. promotes a sense of community.
Hope this helps, Pandora

Answer 8

I think you need to ask your kids...don't choose for them. Give them options and let them decide.

My mom made me do dance and I HATED it...but I stayed in it so I wouldn't disappoint her. I wish she would have given me more options. I don't remember her doing so.

There are so many activities out there...even book clubs for kids who like to read. I wouldn't overload your kids with a ton of activities or sports. Let them decide what they would like to become involved in.

Answer 9

My parents give my little brother and sister a lot of diffrent choices and then let them choose. my sister decided she like dance and soccer the best and my brother liked t-ball and scouts best. getting them invoved is an awesome idea to keep them active and teach them new things, just be careful, dont force them to do anything they dont like, even if youve already paid for it, trust me you will have happier kids

Answer 10

Only If your children are interested in sports or dance. Then I would suggest gymnastics. It is a great beginning for any child interested in these things. They will learn to be strong, physically and mentally.