I found this news article in a school newsletter from Chifley Public School, and thought it may provide food for thought as the school year finishes. It’s titled ‘Benefits of under scheduling your child‘. It shines a light on how little down time our children get these days – time just to be kids and let their minds wander.
I thought I’d share it with you because it gives you another perspective on after school activities and the effect it may be having on our children and also how it may be effecting us as mum’s, the mobile taxi service.
Let’s take a look at what is under scheduling.
- Allowing free time for children to play on their own
- Using their imagination by making up games and activities
- Learning how to cope with boredom and being comfortable with being alone
Here are the benefits of under scheduling:
- Kids learn emotional resilience
- Less pressure to achieve
- Less cost to families
- Less stress to mum’s rushing to daily after school activities
- Less interruption to family meal times
Of course there are benefits for having after school activities too.
Benefits of having after school activities:
- Learning to socialise with different personalities and make friends outside of school
- Health benefits of keeping your child active
- Being part of a team and the importance of playing fair
When at first I read this article, I got a little bit upset – had I not been doing a good job as a parent because of the after school activities. Then I really got present to what the article is about.
… it is okay to have after school activities but as parents we need to find the right balance and not to feel guilty about saying ‘no’ to activities.
When your child’s friends’ are doing choir, dancing, band, netball, swimming etc, it is difficult to say no to your own child doing these same activities. But is all this activity necessary, or good for their mental health? Or good for ours for that matter? In retrospect, probably not. This got me thinking about how now is a good time to start under scheduling.
Why is now a good time to introduce under scheduling?
- As school finishes, so do many the activities. Rather than fill those empty spaces with more activities, use now to enjoy some downtime from rushing from one activity to another. Allow them to learn to let their minds wander, and allow us a break from the taxi service.
- Technology is now a daily part of our children’s lives and it’s important that they learn to fill their upcoming free activity time with something other than screen time. Bring out the drawing pads, pencils, boardgames, even play a game of charades. Something other than screen time – goodness knows, they will probably having lots of screen time in their school life next year anyway.
Getting the kids in the practice of ‘free time’ now may make our whole families life a little less stressful in the New Year.
What are your thoughts?