BY NADYNE LEE
FEBRUARY/MARCH 2010
Guide to Age-Related Extracurriculars
Pre-school: Play dates and playground visits.
Kindergarten and First Grade: One or two activities after school. If your child has energy to burn, choose physical activities (t-ball, gymnastics, soccer.) Be sure that the coach and the other parents have the attitude that it’s more important to have fun than it is to win or lose the game. If your child is artistic, guide her to dance or art.
Second Grade: Allow your children to choose the activities that they enjoy. Be sure they don’t succumb to peer pressure and over-schedule themselves. Two weeknights should remain free. Good choices are music lessons, art classes, swim teams, Lego robotics, and school sports.
Third Grade: Team sports are perfect for third graders. Sports enhance social skills and develop growing muscles. Spelling team, computer club, and band or chorus are also good. But third graders can’t do it all. Be sure they have plenty of free time for family and friends.
Fourth and Fifth Grade: Issues of self-esteem usually become a problem in fourth grade. Let your fourth grader choose whatever she believes she does best. The extracurricular she excels in will boost her self-esteem and build self confidence. Block in family time. Be sure to watch for symptoms of extracurricular overload! If your child is tense, irritable, sleeping irregularly or not doing well in school, you should consider cutting back on the extra activities.
Middle School: Kids in their middle school years sometimes join the Slug Fest. Research shows that middle school students’ favorite extracurricular activity is watching TV— about 25 hours/week. Do anything you can to steer your middle school children away from electronics. Encourage them to join school clubs with a leadership or community service element—school newspaper, band, academic team, student council, or church or synagogue youth group. Involvement in activities such as these has been shown to reduce drug and alcohol use and sexual irresponsibility in preteens and teens.
