Back to school: why you should be wary of the overload of extracurricular activities for children ?

Activités extra-scolaires : attention à la surcharge

Basketball, table tennis, music theory, violin… The start of the school year and sports activities is fast approaching. But be careful: evenings and Wednesdays and Saturdays should not all be dedicated to these activities outside of school. For the well-being of the child, but also of the family.

"I notice that some children have busy schedules, between sports, cultural, artistic activities, not to mention possible appointments with the shrink, speech therapist, etc.", deplores Laurence Roque-Barret, a psychologist in Gironde. And immediately added: “let's stop accumulating activities and overloading their days!”

One or two activities!

While specialists advocate a maximum of two extracurricular activities, she recommends only one! Whether it is a sport, a musical instrument or something else, “it must first please the children and not the parents”, she adds. A way of saying that it is not necessarily wise to direct the youngest towards the activity that mom or dad did or would have liked to do !

Being bored!

The reasons for this great moderation mainly involve two key words:

play. In his eyes, “children who have too many activities no longer even have time to play, in the sense of spending time on self-rewarding activities. That is to say, they have no other goal than the pleasure of playing the game. Unlike competition, for example…“. She emphasizes: “this play time is essential.” boredom. Too many activities also harm the ability to be bored. Or “the bored child develops his capacity for introspection, his imagination, etc.“, continues the psychologist.

Respect the rhythm

President of the General Association of Public Nursery School and Classroom Teachers (Ageem), Maryse Chrétien agrees and insists on respecting the child's rhythm, especially for the youngest.

An example: “rather than running after activities, the beginning of the Wednesday afternoon should mainly be devoted to his nap. Because at that time, that's what he needs the most!“. And for the practice of physical and sporting activity, before running from gym to dojo or elsewhere, she recommends first including these moments in everyday life: “it can start with coming to school walking, rather than in the stroller or in the arms of mom or dad“, she concludes. Or by bike for the older ones!