[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Music, play, arts and other extracurricular activities are important (or perhaps even more important) in early childhood development. Aside from having fun, these activities also expose children to a wide variety of experiences.
How do extracurricular activities help children
Learning about letters, words and numbers are still important. But it’s just unreasonable for children to focus on them all day. A more productive and fun approach is to include more extracurriculars and let the children explore and become more physically active.
Physical activities can do a lot more in helping children learn and develop than spending all day immersed in academics. Aside from being more exciting and engaging, spending time on play seems to be a natural part of our development and evolution. It’s like we’re built to move around and explore (which partly explains why children love to play and make noises).
In addition, interacting with real objects and listening to interesting sounds can stimulate our children’s brains. There’s no substitute for real-world learning especially during the early years. Because of the children’s young age and lack of experience, they’re still trying to make sense of everything they see, smell, hear and feel. They will be naturally curious and drawn towards interesting objects and sounds, and do different kinds of things such as toppling, hitting and shaking. This is a crucial part of their learning when they connect certain sensory information with the objects around them.
Extracurriculars also encourage socialising and making friends. Moreover, those activities encourage cooperation and creative problem solving. Although children are still unaware, activities about play, music and arts help their brains become more active and build key neural connections and pathways. It also helps build up their self-esteem, which then makes it easier for them to get along and feel confident even in unfamiliar situations.
That is what happens here at Teddy Bear Early Learning Centre where we organise and conduct extracurricular activities to promote creativity and physical activity. Our programs are being led and taught by professionals who always value and encourage fun to children.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]