Gabrielle Györfi, owner of Creative You Art Studio in Thalwil shared with us the extracurricular activities her son chooses to do after school.
Every child has a different personality, and those personalities need to be nurtured in a positive way. When my super energetic son of age 6 years old does not have anything constructive to do, he tends to make mischief, which is something that can be avoided with our parental guidance.
School activities are often not aimed at all-round development, and this is why every child needs to be involved in at least one extracurricular activity. However, the balance has to be right among
- after-school activities
- extra lessons
- free play
- time with friends
- family time and
- simple down-time.
When choosing an extracurricular activity, one needs to take into account the child’s
- personality
- likes and dislikes
- energy level and interests which may change over time.
We know our children best
How tired they are when they come home from school, how much ‘extra’ they might need on top of school and how filled up their weekends are with birthday parties, family time and friends’ play.
Many parents come to Creative You with their children and ask me if in my opinion their child is mature/old enough for our creative workshops. My opinion is that there is no such thing as a too young/immature/etc. child to engage in creative activities, but the activity’s level has to be right for the child.
Based on my personal experience as a mom and as the founder of my creative studio, where I see dozens of kids weekly, I would like to recommend at least three types of activities that kids should try out during their early childhood.
SPORTS
Despite a long day at school, my boy is not satisfied if that is all he has to stimulate him throughout the day.
After a snack and some rest, he benefits greatly from a non-academic activity of his own choice: tennis.
It’s a safe and healthy exercise, a great way to tire him out with a lot of running around, quick movements and the use of his entire body. It improves muscular body strength, flexibility, balance and strengthens the cardiovascular system. It requires alertness and tactical thinking, it creates new connections between nerves in the brain and it develops fine motor-skills and hand-to-eye coordination.
Tennis is great for his energy level, but I think he needs something calming and artistic as well to help him unwind, learn to enjoy his ‘me-time’, discover and develop other skills and focus on his inner self.
ARTS & CRAFTS
“In children, creativity develops from their experiences with the process, rather than concern for the finished product. Creativity is not to be confused with talent, skill, or intelligence. Creativity is not about doing something better than others, it is about thinking, exploring, discovering, and imagining.” - Mary Ann Kohl, author of numerous award-winning art idea books for children
Teaching my child to appreciate art is very important to me - whether it’s in a class, at a creative workshop in Creative You, at home or visiting art galleries.
My son loves drawing, painting, glueing and cutting. When he uses his fingers to manipulate art materials, he is developing his fine motor skills as he uses those small muscles in his hands. As he learns to use both hands at the same time, his bilateral coordination skills improve. Furthermore, by doing something creative, he is allowed self-expression and this lets him express (and cope with) his feelings. It also fosters mental growth in him by providing opportunities for trying out new ideas and new ways of thinking.
He often comes to Creative You to work with clay and paint ceramics. I love watching him and the other kids unwind and immerse in this wonderful, stress-free world and just go with the creative flow. It calms them down so they can focus on their inner selves.
The cherry on top is that they are always proud of their artworks! In Creative You anyone can be the artist without any previous experience or talent.
LANGUAGES
We all recognise the importance of learning languages and that of linguistic stimulus, especially for a child growing up in such a multi-cultural environment as Switzerland. I agree that the earlier your child starts learning a foreign language, the better. My husband and I speak English together at home and we speak different maternal languages to our son, so the natural environment is given and he absorbs English in an innate and intrinsic way. He loves it and he asked us so many questions that we decided to sign him up for a class, where he made many friends with whom he already speaks English.
When choosing the right extracurricular activity for my son, the most important thing for me was to help him make better use and improve his current skills, learn new ones, build confidence, explore and learn to express himself, his ideas, his creativity.
I do believe that if we parents get it right, our children will be thanking us in years to come for exposing them or teaching them skills by getting them involved early in the right activities.
