After School Activities – When is Too Much?

After School Activities – When is Too Much? Many parents enrol their children into several after school programs. While this may keep your child busy for hours after school. It could also lead to them becoming burned out and not being able to function properly. Unfortunately some parents look at after school activities as a babysitting service. It may be more convenient to place your child in some type of program instead of finding someone to watch them for you. While keeping your kids busy definitely keeps them away from too many video games, it does not allow them time to relax. This can lead to your child becoming stressed out. This can result in their school grades declining or in them actually getting sick. Many children will feel as though they have to keep up with all their activities to make their parents proud of them. What you want to do instead is tell them that if they have taken on too much then leaving an activity is a smart move. Remember that your child has a busy day at school already. There have their classes to go to with field trips and sports events included. Spending seven or eight hours studying and concentrating all day can leave your child exhausted. The last thing they need is to spend two additional hours participating in yet another rigorous class. While after school activities have been shown to help children, too many classes can have the opposite effect. As a parent you should limit the classes to once or twice a week. Weekend activities might be best for those children who want to do that extra activity. This way there is no pressure or time restrictions. The amount of after school programs that you sign your kids up for will also depend on their age. Small kindergarten children are probably happy with an activity once a week. Their programs should be simple classes where they can learn to develop social skills. For older children activities two or three times a week are great. They will probably enjoy programs such as painting, music, dancing and gymnastics. In the summer time they may want to go to camp or join a baseball summer camp program. As your child becomes a teenager they may want to get involved in the community several times a week. This can be done in various ways by volunteering at the local library, museum, pet shelter or community center. Always encourage your child to be active after school. Remember to look for signs of burnout and take immediate action to prevent this from becoming worse. WWW:WahmChoices.com