Importance of Hobbies and Leisure Activities for Kids

Hobbies and leisure activities play an important role in our lives and all age people can get benefits from these recreational activities. Our kids are usually busy with watcing tv, playing video games, or online social networking sites, but if you check their daily routines they don’t have time for hobbies which can stimulate their mind and body in healthy way. Watching tv, playing video games or internet can be good pass times but these activities are not a good alternative of ‘Hobbies’

Some facts about hobbies and leisure activities:

People who have a hobby are generally healthier." This comment is from director of the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University. Not only in sense of emotional or physical health, hobbies are good for us in many ways.

"When people do things that make them feel good, like a hobby, it activates an area of the brain called the nucleus accumbens that controls how we feel about life", said Dr. S. Ausim Azizi, chairman of the department of neurology at Temple University’s School of Medicine in Philadelphia who studies brain activity and cell signaling. "Activities you enjoy also stimulate the brain’s septal zone — its “feel good” area — and that makes you feel happy", said Dr. Azizi.

Read more at:Importance of Hobbies and Leisure Activities for Kids

Gardeing For Kids

If you ask adult gardeners when they start learning 'gardening', their answer in most cased would be "from their childhood as a hobby". We should encourage kids to be involved in this healthy activity as this the perfect age to start this amazing hobby. Contact with the natural world can be wonderfully nurturing for children, as they make connections with natural environment, learn about the cyclic nature of the seasons, and begin to find out more about where their food comes from.



Plants have the power to change our lives. They enable the simple and therapeutic pleasure of working in one’s own garden. They play a basic role in providing clean air and serve as a nutritious basis for healthy living. And they are uniquely effective teaching tools.

The satisfying experiences of planting, cultivating, and harvesting fruits and vegetables creates a lifelong appreciation for healthy living. Gardens are a microcosm of the environment. Landscaping with water, native plants, and habitat-friendly gardens is a portal for understanding concepts and issues in environmental education both at home and at school.

This post offers reviews of useful links/sites which can guide you in this connection:

* The Kids Garden

TheKidsGarden was formed to offer a unique reference point on creative gardening for children, providing interesting features and practical advice on this subject.

"This site introduces your child to the wonders of nature through gardening. With a range of scents and colours, your kids can create a place of discovery."
There are about 70 articles which are written by professional journalists and experts - who have a particular interest, or a background in this area.

Link: TheKidsGarden.co.uk - creative gardening for children

* Kids Gardening

The National Gardening Association (NGA), founded in 1973, is a nonprofit leader in plant-based education. For more than 30 years, NGA has been working to renew and sustain the essential connection between people, plants, and the environment through
gardening.
About (In their own words)
'We serve a national audience with timely materials designed to foster an appreciation for the benefits of gardening.
Our programs and initiatives highlight the opportunities for plant-based education in schools, communities, and backyards across the country. We serve as a bridge to connect people to gardening in five core fields: plant-based education, health and wellness, environmental stewardship, community development, and responsible home gardening.'

Link: Kids gardening.org

* Gardening With Kids
Helps parents to teach the kids about gardening.
Link: Gardening with kids

* Composting for Kids
It is an interactive site for kids. Simple slide presentation is very interesting and informative for young kids.
Link: Composting for Kids

* My First Garden
'University of Illinois extention' offers this site for kids. This website is meant for 4th grade students to learn about the beauty of gardens, and the care involved in planning, nurturing and enjoying the benefits of gardening in a variety of spaces and places. Kids can find gardening fundamentals, basics, and planning of gardening.

Link: My first garden

* Kids Valley Garden
A gardening resource for kids, where you can get all the necessary information about caring, herbs, flowers, shrubs, plants, vegetables, and glossary of gardening terms.
Link: Kids valley garden

Americans consistently rank gardening as a favorite hobby.

Importance Of Hobbies For Kids

It's been more than 25 years ago, most of the children around our neighbor or among my friends had some sort of hobbies. Reading books was the favourite hobby among good students. Stamp, coin or currency note collecting, photography, gardening were some of the popular hobbies. Not to mention, penpal or penfriendship was one of the popular hobbies. At our school there was an essay writing assessment and my favourite topic was to write about 'My favourite pastime/hobby'. And important part of the essay was related to the importance or benefits of that particular hobby. As stamps/ coin collecting and penfriendship were my favourite hobbies, I wrote about them as a class assignment and was awarded good marks for my description and writing.    

Today our kids spend most of their time watching television and playing video games. Many are involved in participating social networking sites and spend a lot of time there.

I strongly feel that hobbies, leisure activities and pastimes are very important for our kids. Hobbies are expressions of personal accomplishment and a means of self-discovery, hobbies help build self-esteem.

Hobbies are educational tools, as well. For example, a child who becomes interested in rocketry -- one of the most popular hobbies, by the way -- learns about propulsion and aerodynamics. By working on hobbies, children learn to set goals, make decisions, and solve all sorts of problems. Finally, hobbies often mature into lifelong interests, even careers.

Hobbies benefit children in numerous ways.


Benefits of hobbies:
- Hohhies Give children confidence -hobbies provide a sense of personal accomplishment, bolstering self-esteem. If children get positive feedback from their skills and hobbies, they’re less likely to turn to drugs and alcohol for comfort.

- Encourage reading - Hobbies are the gateway to learning, as well as transforming even lazy readers into avid ones. Most often, kids don’t enjoy reading because they’re not interested in the books put before them. However, once you discover their passions, reading just falls into place naturally, when they read about their hobbies.

- Educate - While reading about their hobbies, children develop a hunger for knowledge, maybe without even realizing it. For example, take rock collecting. After collecting some rocks and shells, your junior geologist will most likely want to know more about her (or his) collection, as she researches and studies.

- Teach goal-setting - Children learn to set goals and make their own decisions when they get absorbed in hobbies.

- Can lead to lifetime careers - Hobbies not only mature kids, but also can lead to lifetime career choices. When James G. of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida got his first racing bike in middle school, he went on to work in a bike shop and today, in his mid-twenties, he manages the shop.

Hobbies and collections are a great way to have fun, learn, and make friends. Most hobbies have clubs kids can join or kids can just do a hobby by themselves. Hobbies can bring some interest and spice to to our life beyond TV and video games.

Here are some fun hobbies which your kids may like:

- Stamp Collecting
- Barbie Dolls
- Coin Collecting
- Lego Building
- Trading Cards (i.e Baseball or pokemon cards)
- Photography
- Scrapbooking

Relates posts:

* Hobbies and crafts for kids at "Indian Child"

* Benefits of hobbies and leisures

Hobbies and crafts for kids at "Indian Child"

"Indian child" is basically a site for internet safetly. Parents, teachers all can find it useful, and it is very interactive for children as well.

The site describes the benefits of hobbies as:

"Stress seems to be a predominant ingredient of human existence. No matter how old a person is, one is forever chasing goals. Sad, but true, even kindergarten kids are under pressure to excel in their class. They are burdened with more to learn. And as a child grows academically competition increases, which causes even more stress. Amongst adolescents there is a need to work and study at the same time in order to get that plum job after university. Adults are busy making a living. And in this rat race called life, one just forgets themselves.

Hobby is any leisure activity that diverts an individual from their daily strenuous like. Or it also plays the role of keeping the unoccupied, occupied with something to do. As, in the latter case an empty mind is a devil’s workshop. Indulging in a hobby actually does away with the boredom that sets in due to the monotonous life one gets used to. Certain hobbies also help release pent-up frustrations."

* There are lots of links to the sites offering hobbies and crafts for kids: List of hobbies & crafts for kids