Finding Hobbies for Your Kids
Encouraging Children to Discover Lifetime Passions
Besides giving children something worthwhile to do with their time, hobbies also can lead to lifetime passions.
With children spending countless hours in front of televisions, video games, and computers, it’s more important than ever for parents to direct their kids into wholesome hobbies. Besides filling up the hours, hobbies can also be the beginning of a lifetime passion.
The Importance of Hobbies
- Give children confidence - Besides giving kids something constructive to do with their time, 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.
Guidelines to Finding Hobbies
- Ask questions - What natural-born talent does your child have? Is she or he creative? Athletic? Is she a loner or a social butterfly?
- Consider talents - Before selecting a hobby that you enjoy, consider your child’s natural talents and abilities. On the other hand, realize her weaknesses. You may love to play softball, but if know your daughter is usually picked last for a team, don’t increase her pain by encouraging it as a hobby. Instead, find something that she does well. If your short, small-framed son begs you to play football, although he’s been turned down for Peewee Football, steer his interest in another direction. That’s what one wise Texas mother, Mary C., did decades ago when she traded her son’s football for golf clubs. As a result, her son, Patrick, gained self-confidence as he went on to win golf tournaments. He still enjoys golfing today, at age 52.
Musical Hobbies
As soon as you detect an interest in music, encourage it by giving your child classes to whatever musical instrument she chooses. Borrow or buy a cheap keyboard and see if she has any musical interest or talent. Then, if you find an interest, you can go on and invest in lessons and perhaps a piano. Besides piano lessons, children also enjoy learning to play band instruments. Or, if you can tell your child has a good voice, encourage her to join the school choir or take voice lessons.
Community School Classes
Many communities offer classes for creative hobbies, such as art lessons for children, as well as lessons in crafts. Other hobbies may include photography and needlecrafts. Also, just watching Mom knit or cross-stitch may pique a young daughter’s interest in needlecrafts.
Experiment
If you’re not still sure of your child’s strengths and likes, then experiment. If at first you can’t detect any enthusiasm or natural talent, keep plugging until you find a match for your child. You’ll never know until you try.
