3 Reasons to sign your child up for a School Holiday Club

The school holidays are a time that every child looks forward to. No more school uniforms and days upon days of play is the childhood equivalent of being an adult that is flown to a remote island in the Pacific Ocean without any technology and nothing to do but lay on the beach with a refreshing cocktail.

For parents, this can be a difficult time. Wanting to keep children active is understandable.  As to is the inability to justify taking time off work to be active with them.  Growing up in a single parent household, my Mom found them a God-send.  As did I.  A week at a Soccer School was a dream come true.  A week with the child minder who had myself and others sitting there quietly while they watched the TV….not so much,

Holiday clubs provide a fantastic, low cost option for parents that keeps their children occupied, supervised and active. They provide a number of benefits for the children themselves, both in the present and long-term. Here are the top 3 reasons for making Holiday Clubs a key part of your child’s school break.

Social – Make New Friends

Technology is a wonderful thing. Without it, this blog post wouldn’t be possible. Social Media has allowed long lost friends the chance to connect, phone calls to foreign countries can be made at ease and people can now hold a camera, phone, map and music player all in one tiny device when traveling.

Arguably, it is also having a detrimental effect on the art of conversation and relationship building.  More and more people seem socially awkward, preferring instead to do their talking online as opposed to face to face. As humans, it is in our nature to be social and build relationships to ensure long lasting, happy lives.

As with school, Holiday Clubs with upwards of 30 participants and experienced staff members, skilled in the art of providing activities to bring children closer together and develop their social skills are a great tool for developing long-lasting friendships.  The holiday clubs that we at AJB Sports in Education run, have children who come along that may only see each other for those few weeks of the holidays, but it can be a friendship that lasts and is renewed over and over.  Some participants have become best friends, with weekly get together’s happening as a result of just a few days of getting to know each other.

Physical – Improve their Core Motor Skills

 

Agility, balance and  co-ordination (ABC’s) are the cornerstones of physical literacy.   They affect our ability to walk, run, jump, pick things up, keep our balance on a moving object and catch anything which may be thrown our way.  They are skills that can always be improved, hence the high level training elite athletes go through to improve them by even the smallest fraction of a second.

During the formative and foundation years, our ABC’s have their largest growth potential.  Chidren’s skill sets grow daily on a number of endeavours and using these years to maximise their physical literacy has many benefits outside of purely athletic accomplishment.  Research has shown that there is a link between the motor skill development and academic performance in school children (study).   Though your son or daughter will no doubt appreciate the break from school work, knowing that physical activity is having a positive impact on academic results in a child-centric fun environment is a huge plus.​

Technical – Learn a New Skill

Acquiring new skills is a skill in itself.  There is also no telling where a new skill can lead.  Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs once took a calligraphy class out of pure interest to learn something new.  At the time he had no idea that it would lead to including a large number of font choices for users of Apple Mac books to enjoy when writing documents.  Nowadays, every computer offers this choice.

At AJB Sports in Education, our Holiday Clubs allow children to participate in many different sports they may never even have considered before.  With the correct leadership and guidance, which our coaches strive to offer, this could lead to a life long love of developing skill at a new sport for our participants.  The decision-making skills that go into our sports are life lessons that have a positive impact on every participants life. Using Football as an example, the top level players are exceptionally quick thinkers.  Wayne Rooney once stated that when a cross comes into a box, he has ONE second to process 5 or 6 different situations to enable him to make the best decision possible on what to do with the ball.  This kind of quick thinking is a transferable skill for so many situations that a child might encounter in their life.

The confidence that a child will gain from learning a new skill cannot be underestimated.  One of my favourite memories was seeing every player from a team I coached score a goal while I was in charge.  The change in their personalities at practice and games was a delight to see and the comments from parents about how it impacted things away from football is part of what makes my role so enjoyable.

Are there any positive impacts your son or daughter has from holiday clubs that are not listed?  If so, we’d love to hear from you and your experiences.