Giving the best to ones child is the most pressing desire of each and every parent. At times however, one may land up with a school that does not offer any extracurricular activities. Though there is some merit in having a professionally trained person guide and oversee the activities of the children after school, the parents can also develop activities for their children. In fact at times the parent is a better judge at what kind of extracurricular activity is correct for their child.

There is a special role that a parent can play in the overall academic, physical and social development of a child. Here are some tips on what activities to give importance to and options for various other activities that a child may be interested in.

Needless to say the school and the homework assignments should take precedence over any other fun-filled or special interest activities. The best way to emphasize the importance of these to your child is to ensure that the days' quota of reading, writing and assignments is over before other activities start. If while doing so, you discover that your child has a special interest in a specific academic area like robots or space or animals, don't shy away from aiding the process of discovery and exploration. With the Internet abound with information encourage your child to learn more and share with you their discoveries. You could be surprised with the wealth of knowledge that your child will emerge with.

Social development can be given an impetus by promoting clubs. These could be reading clubs, library clubs, debate clubs and the like. These can allow your child to participate in story reading sessions and can instill a sense of sharing and being together. Some clubs can also be formed with the purpose of community service in mind and could take on tasks like 'clean-the-city' drives. Social programs can also give your child their first experience in charity, community service and suffering. Volunteering for such programs will enable them to have a sense of achievement.

If you would like to further your child in the pursuit of sports and physical activities, then you could consider enrolling them in a sports club. Dancing is another form of physical activity that allows for a release of all the energy that is pent up among kids. The gym can also be a good source of release.

Another option is to involve your child in household activities like cooking, cleaning, watering the plants etc. This will give you a helping hand and at the same time will infuse a familial bonding among the family members.

From the above it is obvious that the need for a school that has extracurricular activities after school is not an all-pervading requirement. Rather the absence of the same allows you to get more involved in the all round development of you child.


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