by Guhan - 7
Extra-curricular activities are an important part of our everyday life. Extra-curricular activities have many positive effects on children. They help get better grades, and improve our social life, as well as self-concept. They help develop important characteristics like leadership and teamwork. However, too many extra-curricular activities as well as the variety of them may be stressful and counterproductive. The appropriate amount and variety of extracurricular activities are important to children and help us in many ways.
Extra-curricular activities help us to interact with others outside of school. This helps us make friends outside of school. Since extracurricular activities are in groups and not one-on-one, there is a lot of interaction between everybody. By interacting with people outside of school, we will not feel ‘cooped up’ in school and we will be able to make more friends.
Being socially involved helps us develop leadership skills and participation skills. By getting involved in a group and being accepted, our self-concept improves as well. Many activities involve group participation, so there are two positive effects. No one feels left out, and everybody plays a role in the victory. This improves the self concept of ourselves; without us, the victory would not have been possible. Leadership skills are also developed in this process. In sports, for example, there are captains for a team. The captain is like the leader of a team. In clubs, when presidents are elected, it gives us a sense of leadership if we are elected.
Too many extracurricular activities may be stressful as it may be a lot of pressure on us. Activities that give ‘homework’ or too many activities may make us feel like we aren’t doing enough or the thought of so much work haunts us. This causes us to feel stressed, and our performance goes down. Extracurricular activities can also be stressful when it is not completely social. Too many video games and general screen time is not healthy, and should not be considered as an extracurricular activity. A balance between the types of extracurricular activities we do also plays a role in how it affects us.
Extracurricular activities are very important to us. It is a time where we enjoy and learn outside of school. This helps us to relax. They help us in many ways, including socially and in our studies. Extracurricular activities are an important part of our everyday lives.