Leisure for Children

In children’s over all development, leisure plays a very important role.  According to the American Academy Pediatrics, when they are very young and in the stage of developing crucial cognitive and motor skills, children learn through play.  Kids may engage in a structured activity like team sports, or unstructured free play; but what’s important is, they should be given opportunities to leisure activities on a regular basis.

Parents may convince their children to join in sports team that interests them like basketball, soccer, baseball and any other games which make the child learn skills, discipline and understand the importance of teamwork towards a common goal.

Kids may also be inclined on dance and music, and their leisure time may be spent through dance and music lessons, or if interest in musical instruments is observed, they may be taught piano, guitar or violin lessons.

Some parents help their children become busy on arts and crafts.  Kids are given art materials and they are encouraged to show how creative they can be.

Unstructured play time is also very essential. Children may spend leisure time with their siblings or some kids in the neighbourhood and just leave them in the backyard; surprisingly, these children will come up with imaginative games and will create fun among themselves.  They may later produce improvised equipment out of the things they see just everywhere, imagining they were their homes, gyms, marketplaces, etc.  Parents may buy them cheap toy guns and cars, dolls, clays, robots and they become the happiest kids on earth.  Boys immediately engage in toy car games and later produce imaginary car racing shows, and somehow, their shouts, laughs and giggles fill the place.

Sadly nowadays, when there is a growing impact of information and communication technologies – when computers, laptops, iPad, cellphones and other gadgets are everywhere at home, and children are very knowledgeable on using those, they spend more and more time at them especially during leisure time.  Some parents, just so they be spared from their kids’ repeated questions and inquiries, prefer an easy way out – giving their children gadgets for them to have something to be busy at. These computers and gadgets have benefits, but they also produce negative effects.

Children have rights – to play, rest and leisure time.  Parents have important role to play in guiding their children spend leisure time meaningfully because a meaningful leisure time is essential to a child’s development.