Equity in education: Creating balance between school and extracurricular activities

When your children are in their formative years, acquiring skills and experiences outside the classroom is just as essential to learning as are English, math, and science. Here are some guidelines for helping your kids balance schoolwork and after-school activities.

 

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 School is top priority

Make sure your child understands that although nurturing passions and honing talents are extremely valuable, schoolwork should always be first on his or her to-do list.

Choose the after-school activity together with your child. Take your child’s interest level and academic schedule into consideration, and only sign up with centers, studios, or leagues whose schedules aren’t in conflict with your kid’s school hours and routines.

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 Provide ample support

Once your child commits to soccer practice or modern jazz class thrice a week, make the most out of the experience by providing them with the all the requirements they’ll be needing and ensuring their regular, punctual attendance to practice, classes, games, and recitals.

Expose your child to role models by taking them to professional soccer games for example, or to a ballet, to inspire them to keep practicing and performing at their best. Encourage friendships from within their chosen activity so they have peers with which they can relate to and from which they can learn even further.  

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Evaluate activities regularly

When academics start suffering because of too much time spent on practice or dance class, enforce solutions to help your child budget time more efficiently. If exams are coming up, for example, tapering practice to once weekly in exchange for more study time might be useful.

Led by principal Catherine Carvalho, St. Bruno Catholic School offers after-school programs and extracurricular activities that intuitively complement the holistic learning it provides to its students. More information on the institution and its faith-centered curriculum is available here.