Children with less load of structured activities are better able to define and achieve their own goals

An investigation by the University of Colorado - Boulder - led by Dr. Yuko Munakata, whose team were members of two University Psychology departments, states that children who spend more time in unstructured activities, of which a good part are decided by themselves, they have more ability to define their goals and achieve them.

These activities can range from reading, board games, playing freely with friends, taking trips, or having their parents take them to visit museums or nature parks (for two examples)

The study has been published in "Frontiers in Psychology", and conveys the idea that children with very structured free time, they don't develop executive capacity well which allows to achieve objectives independently. The research seems to be one of the first to scientifically address how too many formal activities can affect children's brain development.

Apparently, executive functions include a variety of thinking skills, including planning, problem solving, decision making, and regulation of thoughts and actions. When a child has his schedules subject to many structured activities (review classes, swimming, languages, ...), he has no opportunity to develop it.

The PhD student Jane Barker has also participated in this research, and highlights that in recent years there have been two trends faced between parents who participate in blogs, forums and social networks on the Internet. On the one hand those who demand a lot from children to be competitive in the future, and on the other those who are more in favor of "letting do". That is why researchers have assumed the challenge of exploring them.

The study has been developed in several stages, the activities of the participating children were first classified according to their degree of structuring. Too participants were evaluated to find out their self-directed executive function. The results are only a first step, although they are suggestive; Now it is a question of expanding the information, because like any study it can be improved

Isn't it that we organize our children's time too much?

It is not the first study that analyzes the desirability of parents becoming excessively involved in their children's free time. An investigation published last year in the journal "Parenting: Science and Practice", conducted by another group of researchers, found that preschoolers whose mothers tried to direct their games they were less happy than children whose parents did not interfere.

Based on the results of this work called “Less-structured time in children's daily lives predicts self-directed executive functioning”, parents are encouraged to allow balance so that your children can freely enjoy their leisure time. Without stopping to enhance specific skills.

This study reminded me of an entry from last year in which we talked about boredom (feared by parents) as a source of inspiration and creativity. Sometimes it seems that parents are afraid of having 10 minutes of leisure without planning, and we have to relax, because all we can do is that they themselves say they get bored when they have nothing to do, instead of letting go and looking activities that reward them, if that is what they want.

In any case, I consider that when planning extracurricular activities, they should be assessed according to the family need that arises (there are parents who find it very difficult to pick up the children when they leave school), but taking into account children's preferences.

In my opinion, the problem may come when the child is not allowed to decide and choose, in addition to taking the initiative himself, he is likely to be able to structure himself well so that he has free time

In our case I have never considered 'imposing' an extracurricular activity, until the fifth year, my son (as usual in it) finished homework or daily review very quickly, and found that he could not stay with friends, They were always very busy with homework or review classes. Because of his age, he no longer wants to play with his parents so much, and screens are not a good option on weekdays, so we told him to choose only one weekly activity, to give him a little incentive. From now on as you are learning to program and create video games, we will also guide part of your free time out there.

On the other hand, the girl voluntarily adds interests to her daily life, but since she is very organized, she has plenty of time to play freely and do whatever she wants.

Of course, summer is something else, they need that freedom to relieve pressure, and allow rest to body and mind, neither they need it nor we force them: almost nothing of organized activities, much improvisation, and to enjoy the benefits of the hottest time of the year.