Parents play a crucial role in shaping their children’s future. While choosing the right school is important, planning meaningful after-school activities is equally essential. Engaging children in activities they enjoy and look forward to can make a big difference. A well-structured routine helps them unwind, have fun, and stay productive—laying the foundation for long-term success and well-being.
Additionally, a consistent daily routine creates a sense of having control of time and environment. For parents, it becomes easier to keep their children entertained while inculcating valuable life lessons such as time management, responsibility, and the importance of taking a break. Whether your child is into sports or wants to learn abacus math, these tips will help you create a tailor-made routine without overscheduling. But before that, let’s understand the benefits of a solid after-school routine, shall we?
Top 5 Reasons Why Kids Must Engage in After-School Activities
Here’s why you should pay attention to what your kids do after the school:
#1 Social Skill Enhancement
Whether it’s making new friends or increasing emotional intelligence, developing social skills is important for children’s growth and well-being. Interaction is a major part of modern society, and building upon those skills ensures long-term success. Social skills in children help them communicate effectively, encourage teamwork, and contribute to better academic performance.
#2 Confidence Boost
Knowing what your child enjoys and encouraging them to do that helps them discover their passions and develop interests. For example, learning to play an instrument, practising mental math worksheets, or solving puzzles regularly increases self-esteem by cultivating a sense of accomplishment.
#3 Time Management
Managing time is one of the most underrated and untalked skills. Planning and organizing the time well leads to less anxiety and overwhelm. Whether they are going to their schools or getting ready for their soccer practice, showing up on time is highly valuable. A fixed routine teaches children to prioritize tasks, fostering self-awareness, helping them to dedicate their time to activities that align with their goals, and transition between the tasks smoothly.
#4 Improved Physical Health & Mental Health
Engaging in physical activities like sports or dance after school improves stamina, improves bone health, and reduces the chances of obesity in kids. Activities like playing chess, practicing abacus math, and solving puzzles help improve memory, sharpen focus, and develop critical thinking skills.
A mix of playing and learning time helps reduce stress among the kids, fostering positivity. As parents, if you are looking for an abacus program that nurtures whole-brain development, you might love UCMAS’s online abacus classes.
Selecting the right after-school program shouldn’t have to be so hard. Here is our expert guide to finding the best abacus online class in the US.
#5 Academic Success
Enriching abacus programs not only help the kids with math, but they also improve their overall academic performance. Students and parents have noticed a significant improvement in cognitive skills like memory, focus, concentration, and more, leading to increased confidence and enhanced problem-solving skills. Finding the right balance between spending time on studying and extracurricular activities creates a healthy life balance for children.
Ideas To Build A Routine That Works For Your Child
Choose what works best for them by incorporating a few of these activities:
Sports & Board Games Based Interests:
In today’s digital world, it is hard to keep the kids away from phones and tablets. So, encouraging the kids to play outside is not only good for their mental health, but also for their physical health.
Kids also love playing once they get started. As parents, you should encourage them to play outside to improve motor skills & inculcate sportsmanship. Sports like soccer, basketball, tennis, chess, and swimming have a lot of career opportunities, and they also help build resilience.
Art & Creative Activities:
Nurturing your child’s natural talents in a field like craft, art, drawing, and painting is a way to help them unleash their creative energy. It’s a way for them to express their emotions & feelings. It’s a fun activity that can open doors for opportunities like being a designer, artist, painter, or sculptor later in life. Great artists start young, and it’s the perfect time for the young ones to use their time productively. Also, looking at cute kids with paint on their faces is a memory to be captured.
STEM-Based Experiments:
Are you raising a scientist at home? Do they love making the erupting volcano even when there are no projects given to them at school? Kids who are curious about building, coding, designing, experimenting, and problem-solving would love to learn more about it. A STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) activity involves building a catapult, making robots via coding, doing mental math practice, learning abacus math, making magnetic slime, and more. It’s a powerful concept that helps foster critical thinking, innovative thinking, and teaches real-world applications.
Reading Activities:
Reading is considered to be one of the best hobbies, especially for young children. From improving vocabulary to better comprehension, reading helps children boost their language skills. It enhances their ability to express themselves verbally and in writing. Also, reading before bed helps relax the mind and improve sleep quality. Reading fiction & non-fiction develops empathy, enhances creativity and emotional intelligence, and is crucial in learning new information and gaining new perspectives.
Become A Part of UCMAS:
UCMAS after-school program has been designed for the overall brain development of the child. By using the abacus tool, kids get a hands-on learning experience. The program teaches mental math, cognitive, and life skills. Studies show that parents and students have seen an increase in overall academics. Regularly attending the UCMAS classes builds self-discipline, boosts confidence, and can help build new friendships. If you want to raise a successful child, request an inquiry form here.
Build A Rapport With Your Child To Know Them Better
Every child is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Listen to their needs and pay attention to what they like and are naturally good at. Rather than comparing with their peers and building pressure, let your child choose what they want to do. Also, it’s recommended to give them the breathing space and not plan their classes too tightly. UCMAS’s program is scheduled so that the students can easily manage it with their school, while also getting the time to play. Investing a few hours early in their childhood will bring rewards in the future. Whether they want to be the next chess champion, an upcoming singer, a legendary painter, or the next math Nobel Prize winner, encourage them with support and love!
Make your child future-ready by enrolling them to UCMAS today!