Hobbies Help Kids De-Stress

Hobbies Help Kids De-Stress

Creative Ways to Improve Your Child’s Life

This seems obvious, but bears reminding: “When engaging in a hobby you enjoy, the brain releases endorphins, chemicals that are attributed to creating positive feelings. Over time, your hobby helps to train the brain to be active, happy, and healthy.”

Anybody had a stressful year or so? Could you use some extra endorphins right about now?

We’ve talked a lot about how the Covid pandemic and lockdowns, virtual school, social isolation, learning loss and uncertainty have affected all of us, but it may be hardest on our kids. Which is why it’s more important than ever to encourage kids – and all of us, really – to cultivate a hobby or two that have nothing at all to do with school, work, or anything else that is a stressor.

Emotional, Psychological, and Physical Benefits of Hobbying

Some resources say that healthy eating, exercising, meditating, and reading are “hobbies”, but those are really more accurately categorized as lifestyle choices. The kinds of hobbies we’re talking about are the more fun and creative ones like beading friendship bracelets, knitting, painting, learning how to play a musical instrument, collecting and trading things like stamps, coins, comic books, Funko Pop figures (or really anything). Of course many hobbies do involve physical activity, like dancing, rock climbing, or bicycle riding and the benefits there include feeling more physically fit without technically “exercising”.

The endorphins mentioned earlier are your body’s way of telling you that what you’re doing feels great, helps you de-stress and just generally improves your day and your life. In a digital world where our kids are staring at some kind of electronic screen for hours on end, it’s even more important to find a fun activity that allows them to unplug.

Getting involved in a hobby is also a way to introduce your child to a new social network and group of friends with shared interests, which is another beneficial result.

Don’t Just Encourage – Participate!

It’s great for parents to encourage their children’s hobbies, but it can be even more fun if you participate in the activity with your child. Even if all you do is help with the research for your kid who wants to get into stargazing or bird-watching, your involvement helps reinforce the validity of their choice and is an opportunity to bond. Certainly if your child has an interest in something you already like to do – like going to classic car shows and learning about old cars – it makes it that much more fun to share the activity.

Just Don’t Nag

Interest in hobbies will wax and wane, and something that delighted your child last summer may not interest her right now. That’s why it’s great to help encourage multiple kinds of hobbies that your child can move in and out of as the muse strikes. If that rock collecting kit or custom bowling ball is sitting and collecting dust, resist the urge to complain about it and make your child feel guilty. That’s the best way to insure that they never pick it back up again.

The objective is to introduce and encourage activities that are fun, relaxing, rewarding, distracting, or even just amusing. Remember the endorphins! It can be as simple as setting up a card table in the corner of your family room with a jigsaw puzzle that everyone can spend a few minutes on when they feel like it. Or a dedicated hobbyist can end up spending serious time and money on specialized tools or equipment, traveling to conventions, or taking lessons. Hobbies can take many forms and are as varied as the people who love them.

Some Popular Hobby Ideas for All Ages in 2022

  • Astronomy
  • Baking
  • Birding
  • Blogging
  • Calligraphy
  • Candle Making
  • Chess
  • Collecting anything
  • Coloring books (for every age, even adults!)
  • Cooking
  • Cosplaying
  • Fiber Arts (knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, needlepoint, etc.)
  • Genealogy
  • Graphic Design
  • Indoor gardening (herbs and salad ingredients)
  • Learning sign language
  • Magic Tricks
  • Meditation
  • Outdoor gardening
  • Pen Pals
  • Photography
  • Playing a musical instrument
  • Pottery
  • Puzzles
  • Soap Making
  • Videography
  • Woodworking

Links to More Hobby Ideas

28 Hobbies for Kids You Haven’t Thought Of

35+ Most Popular & Common Hobbies in the World

65 Hobbies for Kids That are Fun

11 Fun Hobbies to Do as a Family

Keeping Creativity and the Arts Alive During Lockdown

Keeping Creativity and the Arts Alive During Lockdown

There’s a lot of focus on academic progress – or lack thereof – with students during the pandemic. The cancellation of in-person school is creating a lot of stress for students, parents, and teachers. But what is also happening is that many schools have cancelled “non-essential” extracurricular activities for students. Even schools that have returned to in-person classes, or a hybrid schedule of online and in-person, are not resuming arts programs, student clubs, student community outreach programs, field trips, museum visits, and the like.

While the COVID-19 learning loss is a real concern, it is compounded by the loss of social interaction and the enrichment that comes from participation in creative activity. Some schools are resuming sports activities, which is a great outlet for the population of students who participate, but many schools are not even doing that much.

Some activities, like speech and debate, can be translated into an online format. And some drama teachers are becoming creative, replacing scheduled productions with recording audio plays, short films, and table readings over video calls. And while this may work for some older students, it’s completely limited by the individual school district and resources available.

Creative Things for Kids to Do During COVID Quarantine

(or any time!)

Besides the inherent value of encouraging creativity in students of all ages, non-academic activities are also a wonderful break and may help students focus better when they do have to work on academics. Below are 21 great resources for artistic, creative, crafty, musical, dramatic, and other activities that you can do with your child, and help them interact with others during COVID.

Art Ideas

11 Incredible Homeschool Art Project Ideas

Simple Art Activities for Your Homeschool

36 Elementary Art Lessons for Kids

Museum Tours

17 Famous Art Museums You Can Visit from Your Living Room

International Spy Museum – Free Virtual Tour

The 75 Best Virtual Museum Tours – Art, History, Science

Craft Projects

50 Fun Activities for Kids

125 Hobbies to Pick Up During Quarantine

25 Cheap DIY Projects for Teens and Tweens

Starting a Hobby

Hobbies to Do at Home

The 15 Best YouTube Channels for Learning New Hobbies & Skills

13 Hobbies That Are Both Cheap and Fun

Music

52 Homemade Musical Instruments to Make

10 Boredom Busting Musical Activities for Parents & Kids at Home

Music in Our Homeschool

Creative Writing

10 Fun Writing Activities for Kids

Five Writing Exercises for Secondary English Language Arts

8 Fun Creative Writing Lesson Plans

Drama and Video

Distance Learning: Ideas and Resources for Your Drama Classroom

20 Video Project Ideas to Engage Students

Fun Activities That You Can Do at Home

How to Achieve the Best School/Life Balance for Your Child

How to Achieve the Best School/Life Balance for Your Child

Today’s kids are notoriously over scheduled. They have sports and music lessons and clubs and playdates to manage on top of homework, studying, essays, and group projects. It can all feel like too much, especially when you have a child who needs extra help to stay on track in school.

How do you help your child find time to be a kid, especially when they need after-school tutoring?

At TutorUp, we connect you with certified, experienced teachers who know how to customize lesson plans based on your child’s interests and learning style. Personalized learning makes tutoring sessions more effective and fun, and it can be one small step in finding the right school-life balance.

Here are 5 tips for making sure your tutored child has enough time for homework and hobbies without feeling overwhelmed:

1. Carve out time for homework, play, dinner, and sleep

For children who need tutoring, staying on top of homework can be a big challenge. That’s why it’s so important for parents to establish what after-school “homework time” looks like.

Do you check in with your kids about homework when you get home after work? If you’re already at home, do you make sure they spend quality time on school work, free of other distractions?

Establish expectations about finishing homework and meeting study goals early, and watch for warning signs that your children are having trouble balancing their activities.

Do they seem overtired and stressed? They might be trying to tackle too much and not getting enough rest. Are they quiet and withdrawn? They might be down after spending too much time slogging away on schoolwork and not enough time with friends.

After all, your children spend eight or more hours each day trying to focus in school. It’s ok for them to take a break, play outside, hang out with friends, watch TV, or pursue other hobbies after school, too.

Perhaps most importantly, children need structured times for sleep and family dinner. Without enough sleep, kids have difficulty solving problems and focusing, while a regular dinner time gives children an opportunity to forge stronger bonds with their family.

By creating a stable structure around their most important needs, you’ll help your kids find the room in their days for everything from school work to play.

2. Embrace your child’s interests

Whether your kid is obsessed with princesses or can’t stop studying bugs with a magnifying glass, it’s important to encourage and embrace your child’s interests.

Seek out the activities they seem most drawn to, so they have both creative and social outlets that help them thrive.

As a parent, it’s also important to help your child prioritize. If they want to take saxophone lessons, join marching band, play soccer, and attend the French Club after school, will their grades suffer?

According to Oren Amitay, a Toronto-based psychologist, too many after-school activities could make for a more anxious kid – especially if the schedule’s starting to overwhelm you, too.

“Being busy isn’t necessarily bad, but kids pick up on the atmosphere around them,” Amitay told Global News. “It’s the tension, the frustration, the panic in trying to arrange all these things.”

Are you worried that your child is taking on too many after-school clubs and activities? Help them identify one or two activities that are most meaningful to them and encourage them to stick with it.

That doesn’t mean their interest will last forever, though, says Hilary Levey Friedman, a sociologist at Harvard University.

“Childhood is the time to try out many different things, so not all music, art, and sports classes will stick for the long run,” Friedman told NBC’s Today. “But kids should try to get a complete experience with a class or team before moving on to something else.”

If you think your child has given the activity a shot and simply needs to pare back, give them permission to take a break from after-school clubs, sports, and other activities that have lost their luster.

They’ll feel more excited about being able to focus on one or two hobbies that mean the most, and you won’t have to worry that they are spread too thin.

3. Schedule regular, short tutoring sessions

When young children need after-school tutoring, it adds even more instructional time to an already long day.

Not only are kids and teens often getting more homework than they can handle, but some after-school tutoring programs can wind up adding more to the workload.

How much is too much? According to a poll from Statistic Brain, teens are often spending more than three hours on homework every night.

That’s way more than the recommended 10 minutes per night per grade level, says Raychelle Cassada Lohmann, an education columnist for U.S. News & World Report.

“Regardless, research has shown that doing more than two hours of homework per night does not benefit high school students,” Lohmann writes. “Having lots of homework to do every day makes it difficult for teens to have any downtime, let alone family time.”

Work with your tutor to establish regular, short sessions that maximize one-on-one instructional time – but that won’t make it impossible for your kid to be a kid.

Perhaps it’s appropriate for your tutor to offer homework support that can help your child lessen the load from their teacher. Other sessions might be devoted to tackling fundamental concepts that can help your student be more successful in the classroom – and cut back on homework time after school.

Be in communication with your tutor about the best ways to juggle homework with additional instructional needs. By using TutorUp’s tutoring reports, you and your tutor can also communicate directly with your child’s teacher about their workload and progress.

4. Encourage your tutor to incorporate your child’s interests

Your child’s hobbies are an important way for them to socialize after school, but their interests can be insightful for a tutor to know about, too.

One of the biggest perks of one-on-one instruction is the chance for children to experience personalized learning. Expert tutors incorporate your child’s interests into their lesson plans, making tutoring sessions more enjoyable and effective.

From art and science projects that help your child understand fundamental concepts, to self-directed learning, the work your child does with a tutor can be informed by their natural interests and curiosity.

By working with your tutor to personalize tutoring sessions, you’ll help your child develop a genuine rapport with their tutor. A positive rapport helps tutors make progress with students more quickly, especially when there’s difficult material to cover.

Instead of balking at the latest round of calculus or physics homework, your child will be able to fall back on a positive, nurturing relationship rooted in their strengths and interests.

Done well, tutoring can deepen your child’s ability to learn by drawing on their hobbies. It might still be homework, but at least it’s fun!

5. Show your kids you value their accomplishments at all levels

We’re socialized early in life to associate our value as people with the work that we do. That’s why studies show that kids who receive “bad grades” also struggle with self-confidence and self-esteem.

Too often, we don’t encourage students who achieve lower grades because we don’t view those grades as an accomplishment. Instead we attempt to “remediate” them, and one-on-one tutoring can unfortunately feel like this approach when a student is struggling.

The remedial mindset can begin a bad cycle that winds up killing a child’s natural curiosity or interest in subject material. A genuine love of learning, on the other hand, might actually produce a healthier, more positive attitude toward school – no matter what grades your student earns.

It’s the job of both parents and educators to nurture a child’s curiosity and interests, says Maurice J. Elias, Director of the Rutgers Social-Emotional and Character Development Lab. This produces not only more competent learners, but learners who are motivated to challenge themselves in the future.

“Competence is propelled by curiosity and interest,” Elias writes at Edutopia. “As children come to feel effective in accomplishing something, they are more likely to try to replicate that feeling by trying to accomplish more challenging tasks.”

Encouraging curiosity and interest can be a healthy way out of the “bad grades” and “low self-esteem” rut. Work with your tutor to positively reinforce your child’s accomplishments in every session. Together, you can instill a lifelong love of learning that will benefit your child for years to come.