Tag Archives: The Benefits of Summer Activities

The Benefits of Summer Activities

I have several friends with young children who have mentioned that they don’t have any summer activities planned for their kids over the summer. Instead, they just “play it by ear” and go with it. Basically, if something comes up that they want to do with their kids, they do, but otherwise the kids have an unstructured summer.

While I believe that children should be allowed more down time in the summer, I still strongly believe that scheduling some summer activities is important as well. For example, my son will be attending three half-day camps this summer (each last five days), as well as, swimming lessons – and we just finished up t-ball. That may sound like a lot, but none of the activities I have planned for my son last longer than a half-day, and he won’t be doing more than one activity per day. I just have it planned where he has something to do throughout the whole summer.

So, what are the benefits of having your kids enrolled in summer activities?

Make New Friends. When you sign kids up to do one or more activities over the summer, more than likely, they will be meeting new people and making new friends. This is especially true for those of us with young children as meeting new people and making new friends helps them develop their social skills as they learn how to interact with other kids. Keeps Them Busy. One of the constant complaints kids have during the summer is, “I’m bored.” When you have summer activities planned, this isn’t going to be something you hear very often. Even if you only have an activity scheduled that lasts half a day or less, your kids aren’t going to be bored. Keeping kids busy during the summer is important…