Hobbies, leisure or recreation activities are not only beneficial for adults, but they are very important for children. Participation in recreation activities leads to well-balanced, healthy and physically-active children.Recreation activies provides fun learning environments for children. I take Nursery year classes and more I am learning about the importance of play and recreation activities, more convinced I am, that recreation and fun activities play a positive role in development of a child.
The early years are critical. Considerable evidence exists that circumstances in the first years of a child’s life have lifelong impacts on their health, learning, and coping skills.
Participation in recreation programs and activities benefits children in many ways:
* Promotes good physical and emotional development in children; develops motor skills and stimulates intellectual, emotional and social growth
* Develops social skills; i.e. relating to others, learning social roles and reinforcing behavioral norms
* Builds positive self esteem and self worth; children gain a sense of achievement from mastering skills which leads to higher achievement and better results in school
* Develops life and leaderships skills by participating in team and sport activities, being group leaders, making decisions and solving problems
* Facilitates long term health benefits; i.e. physical activity
* Reduces the risk of disease such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity and osteoporosis
* Stimulates children’s minds and creative thinking through play, games and creative
programs
* Fosters an awareness of the larger community and cross cultural understanding
* Enables children with disorders to achieve the same level of social, physical and
academic competencies as their peers
* Develops positive attitudes towards the importance of recreation and leisure in
contributing to healthy, active lifestyles
Other benefits to children and families include:
* Recreation provides positive role models for children
* Recreation is a strong mitigating factor in reducing child and family poverty
* Recreation contributes to a healthier, stable family life when parents participate in their children’s recreation activities
Providing recreation for children is associated with good outcomes for mothers
Subsidizing recreation for children who cannot afford to pay, pays for itself through reduced use of social and health services.
Read the full report from Canadian site 'toronto': Pdf version
- The Campus of University of Cincinnati provides some recreational program which can be adopted by schools: Recreation Enriches Children
- According to NSW Child Health Survey 2001 at Centre for Epidemiology and Research, NSW Department of Health, 'Favourite activity among children aged 4-12 years', as reported by parents or carers, NSW, 2001 (per cent of parents or carers):
The question "What is [child]’s favourite activity when not at school or in day care?” was asked of parents or carers.
Just over 70% of parents or carers said their child’s favourite activity was
either:
- playing sport
- watching television, videos, movies and using a computer
- riding a bike, scooter, skateboarding or rollerblading
Related posts:
- Recreation, hobbies and leisures providing refreshment to life
- Benefits of hobbies and leisures
- The role of hobbies in our lives
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