Extra Curricular Activities

· Go for quality, not quantity. Your child will benefit most from one or two activities that are fun, reinforce their social development, and teach new skills. Too much scheduled time can be stressful, especially for young children, and may make it harder to concentrate on schoolwork.

· When evaluating extra-curricular activities, consider your family schedule and personal energy level. Multiple activities per child may be too much to manage, particularly if they have overlapping times, disparate locations, require your attendance, and/or disrupt the dinner hour.

· Select activities where you have someone with whom you can carpool. Even if you are available to drive most days, you will need backup sometimes. Choosing activities that occur on-site after school will also minimize driving.

· Find out from the school or teacher which days will be heavy homework or test study days and schedule extracurricular activities accordingly.

· If your child doesn't want to participate in regular, organized extracurricular activities, you may want to consider other options to help build interests and social skills. For example, check out the local library for monthly reading programs, find out if your local recreation or community center offers drop-in activities, or talk to other parents and schedule regular play dates with their children.

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