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Extracurricular Activities:

By the time kids are 4 or 5, there are many different activities they can become involved in. There are sports, such as t-ball and soccer, and later it becomes football and cub scouts or girl scouts and cheerleading. These things can be great for your child. They get to have fun, be active, interact with other children, and they get to learn responsibility as well as new skills.

But, there are a couple of ways to make these things as enjoyable as possible for your child and for you:

• You shouldn't force them—if your child tries a new sport or activity and wants to quit, you should talk about it with them first, before making any decisions. Finding out why your child wants to quit can help determine if that should be the answer or not. If your child is embarrassed because they made a mistake, you may want to convince them to try again, and point out that everyone makes mistakes. If your child says they just hate it, and don't want to play it, you should consider letting them quit. Sometimes a child just isn’t interested in something they thought they would be, and if this is the case, it's not a good idea to force your child to continue.

• Don't let them do too much—if your child is in school, as well as dance classes, soccer, girl scouts, t-ball, and karate, you are letting them do too much. If your child spends every, or nearly every, day of the week having to do one or another activity, they will likely burn out a lot faster and won't want to continue with any of them after a while. Instead, let them try one and see if they like it, then when that one is over, let them try another. If it is a year-round type of activity, you may want to limit the others to only one at a time. The younger a child is, the less activities they should have scheduled. If you can limit it to two or three times a week, they are likely to enjoy them a lot more.

• Let them pick—while you may have a favorite sport that you would love to see your child play, your child may not like it. Likewise, they may pick a sport or another activity that you despise. You should let them pick, though, and you should be supportive of whatever activity they are trying. Many parents want their children to do things that they enjoy because it helps them have something in common and can promote bonding. But, if your child disagrees with you, you need to let them spend their time doing something they enjoy as opposed to doing something just to make you happy.


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