Back to School: Planning Your Child’s Afterschool Activities

Can children learn English after a long and full academic school day?

 As a parent, you want the very best for your child. But every family has a different idea as to what the optimal balance between in-school and after-school activities — and every child has his own comfort zone and capacity for learning.

How do you strike the balance between giving your child the right opportunities and overloading him?  Will he be able to learn?

Children can learn after a long and busy school day, but there are some contributing factors to consider. How old is your child? How full is his afterschool curriculum? What are the expected norms in your country?

Making Learning Fun
A very full day doesn’t automatically mean that the child is doing “too much.”  Even a tired child when he’s doing something that’s really fun will wake up and have a good time after a long day. However, it’s important to ensure that children attending afterschool activities aren’t exhausted or sick because that would really be an unhealthy choice.

What’s the Benefit of Afterschool Programmes?
Afterschool programmes can provide an ideal opportunity to get children excited about learning and pursuing their own interests. It helps them develop self-confidence as they explore new talents in areas that may not be a part of their school curriculum.

Make sure the activities are fun and engaging, no matter what they are designed to teach. After a long day at school children will be best able to absorb the content of a lesson if it looks more like play and less like a traditional classroom lesson.

A well designed English programme, built on a solid methodology, makes it easy for children to learn English as a second language. When children are having fun, they absorb language without even realizing they are learning. They leave the lessons energized and looking forward to next time!