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Top 10 Benefits of Sports-Based Extracurricular Activities

Sports for Kids

By //  by Leslie Foster

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Top 10 Reasons Sports Based Extracurricular Activities

Tired kids are happy kids. Or was that happy parents? Either way, kids need to be moving their bodies and by staying physically active with sports they have better appetites and better sleeping habits, culminating in general well-being.

The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelinesstate that children aged 5-17 should get at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day. Children also need opportunities to break up sedentary behaviour throughout the day, because all screens all the time isn’t good for anyone. If that isn’t reason enough to consider enrolling your child in a sports-based extracurricular activity, here are 10 more:

Top 10 Reasons Your Kids Need Sports-Based Extracurricular Activities:

  1. Your child will move more and sit less. I know that this is kind of repeating myself but it’s really important.
  2. Sports play a key role in helping kids develop “physical literacy” as defined by Canadian Sport for Life as the skills, confidence and motivation to enjoy a variety of sports and physical activities throughout their lives.
  3. If physical activity is introduced at a young age, the likelihood of being physically active and healthy in later life increases.
  4. Your child can pursue interests and develop passions. And if you are lucky, sports can even introduce them to new mentors and heroes.
  5. Your child will develop gross motor skills like running, jumping, throwing, and kicking and fundamental skills like agility, balance, and coordination. These are all vital to participation in every sport and help reduce the incidence of injury.
  6. Playing sports will teach your child skills that will benefit them for life, like motivation, commitment, cooperation, leadership, self-discipline, self-awareness, teamwork, sportsmanship, time management, and communication.
  7. Your child will make new friends that will likely share common interests.
  8. Your child will learn new skills and improve over time. Sports will teach them that practicing (at anything) helps you improve. For a child struggling academically, the chance to be good at sports may make a big difference in self-esteem. Studies have also shown that sports can boost a child’s academic performance.
  9. Sports are a fantastic outlet to burn energy after sitting all day in class. As a parent who lives with your child, this may be the second most important reason to enroll your child in a sport-based extracurricular activity 😉
  10. Last but certainly not least, your child will have FUN!

This list is certainly not exhaustive. Let’s keep the conversation going. What benefits have you seen in your child as a result of participating in sports-based extracurricular activities?

Sports for kids health

Image Source: WikiCommons Google Images

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Filed Under: Health & Wellness, Living Tagged With: better sleep for kids, childrens sports activities, extracirricular activities, healthy kids, Kids sports

About Leslie Foster

A graduate of the MBA program at York University, Leslie pursued a career in Marketing and Communications for over a decade before leaving that world behind to become an entrepreneur. She is the creator of Ottawa’s uber-cool family entertainment and edutainment company Funatorium Exploriumfollow. She has always loved to write and started freelance writing for local Ottawa publications about three years ago. She writes about family, food, travel, and also dabbles in copywriting. Her dream is to retire as a travel writer … who wouldn’t want those perks! She is mom to an amazing son and wife to a pretty terrifc guy. She is a perpetual idea generator and believer of all things good in the world.

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Comments

  1. peady

    August 26, 2014 at 2:39 pm

    Some very excellent points!

    The three that stand out as most notable are #s 3, 8 (so true!), 9 (Hello!!), and 10.

    I guess there’s no time like the present, is there?

    I’m off to check the Recreation Guide. : )

  2. peady

    August 26, 2014 at 2:40 pm

    *four

    Obviously. 😉

  3. Anne Radcliffe

    August 27, 2014 at 7:45 am

    My son’s enrolled in swimming, has just finished soccer, and is going into the hockey initiation program in October. It’s such a good program!

  4. Leslie Foster

    August 27, 2014 at 7:52 am

    Love! My son resumes competitive water polo on the weekend. He only had three weeks without it and he (and his body) misses it.

  5. Leslie Foster

    August 27, 2014 at 7:52 am

    🙂

  6. peady

    August 28, 2014 at 8:24 am

    Mummy’s tired. 😀

    Excellent post!

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