Keep Your Kids Healthy With After School Activities
Instead of sitting in front of a television or computer, or worse yet, hanging out at the mall, kids can use their time after classes let out to learn new skills. As a parent, your job is to make sure they have fun while they do it. Many school boards have cut back on extra-curricular activities and many families can’t afford the cost of private instruction, but you don’t have to spend big bucks to keep the kids busy. In this article, we’ll discuss some entertaining and economical after school activities.
Child obesity has reached epidemic proportions. After a day of creative activities and seat work at school, many kids simply go home and plop down in front of the television or computer. To get them up from their shows and video games, challenge kids with physical after school activities that are fun, like relay races, backyard t-ball games and even skateboarding.
Category Hopscotch is a challenging after school activity that will teach your child to think fast while they jump around. All you need is some chalk, a few rocks to use as markers, and a small rubber or tennis ball. Draw a hopscotch court on the ground and put a category name in each box. You can use categories like colors, fruits, cars and names. The player tosses the ball and hops to each category that the ball lands on, naming something that corresponds to the category as they go. To make it more challenging, words can’t be repeated. Whoever finishes all the categories first is the winner.
Kids crafts, activity books and coloring pages are always fail proof activities, especially for younger children. To keep the older kids on schedule, have them make calendar bookmarks. You’ll need an old calendar, a glue stick, some cardboard or construction paper, a hole punch, and some bright ribbon or string. Cut the calendar into weekly segments and use a glue stick to stick the pieces to strips of colorful paper. Use the hole punch to make a hole on one end and loop a length of ribbon or string through it. Using a fine tip marker, the kids can write their favorite activities in the boxes that correspond to the day they do them. For example, Monday – gym class, Tuesday – piano lessons and so on. They can decorate their bookmarks with pictures and stickers too.
If you’re not available to supervise your child’s projects after classes let out, then make up a list of things to do for their caregiver and provide a bag of supplies. If you opt for an after school club, make sure it involves physical activities that will benefit your child. After school activities can play an important role in a child’s development, so make sure they have fun and use the time wisely.
