After School Activities for kids

Research says that after school programs can increase a child’s academic achievement, communication and social skills, and contribute to a healthy lifestyle.

Here are few activities that are considered to be a creative as well as help in the child’s personality development.

Drama: A wonderful activity to enroll your child in. Other than them learning about this skill, it helps in increasing a child’s self-confidence and public speaking skills, and takes away the stage fear.

· Dance: From classical dance forms like Odissi, Ballet to Hip-hop and Bollywood styles — all dance types are good in their own way. Whatever the child picks let him enroll into one. Other than becoming an expert dancer, the child will also learn teamwork and to perform gracefully under pressure.

· Music: Music helps in soothing our mind and makes one a calm and composed person. Be it vocal classes or instrumentals, enrolling in music is the best step towards building a great person. A quiet popular after school activity among children above 10 years.

· Arts: Enroll your child into the creativity of painting, photography, sculpting to boost their concentration and patience levels.

· Sports and Fitness: Tennis, Swimming, Gymnastics, Wall climbing, Roller skating for cardiovascular and muscle building benefits also to get children to be active and competitive, develop tactical thinking and Martial arts like Tai-chi, Karate and Taekwondo forself-defense and discipline and Yoga for an element of calm in their busy days.

It is important to consider other factors as well like cost, distance from home, what the child wants and age appropriate activities while choosing after school activities for your child.

Apart from enrolling your child in a class, you can also try these after school activities at home.

· Recycling objects: Old bottles, old cereal boxes and other items that the children can repaint will prompt the children to think where the objects came from, how they were made apart from increasing creativity and generating environmental awareness.

· Play Dress Up: Wearing different costumes and staying in character of a Pirate, a Cook, a Dancer, a Princess is a fun way to keep children occupied and let their creativity flow. Indulge the child to create stories of their own to go with the costume.

· DIYs: Bird-feeder, kite, clock, scrap book with a collage of pictures, photo-frame with buttons, pebbles, bottle covers glued to it, a friendship bracelet etc.

· Take out old photos and chat around it: Share photos with kids and tell them stories about when they were born and show them your own baby photos and show them what you were like when you were young and photos from trips and adventures with friends and share stories with them.

· Create funny Infomercials: Pick random objects in the house like a headphone or a toaster and challenge each other to create a funny TV-style infomercial and convince each other to buy it.

· Walk in the park and identify: Go for a walk in the park and get the children to name the plants or the breed of dogs that pass by.

· Play Board games and Card Games: Ludo, Carom, Snakes and Ladder, Monopoly, Uno, options are aplenty. Other than these games being indoor, they also teach a lot to the kids.

· Made up Quiz: From simple questions like what is my favorite color to small trivia on geography, history and science, names of states and capitals, you can create a quiz.

· Cook and Bake together: Select simple recipes that the children can make by themselves like sandwiches, involve them in measuring the ingredients, bake together to make cookies and other treats. Let them watch you cook and help them learn what foods go together.