Extracurricular Activities to Foster Intellectual Growth

Piano

Learning and growth is more than just listening to lectures in a class room or reading technical books.  Growth is about engaging the mind in different activities.  We recommend a couple of different activities for children and young adults to stimulate their brains.  Playing the piano and chess are both great activities.  Both of these are great choices for kids which can be started at a very young age.  Getting involved in sports is another strong choice for development.  Keeping physically active is important for growing minds.  In this post we will talk about getting involved in these different extracurricular activities, the pros, and the cons associated with different activities.

Football, Basketball, Baseball, Hockey, Golf

Hockey

All of these sports have large strategical components that foster intellectual growth.  Team sports like football, basketball, and hockey contain important facets of teamwork.  Knowing where teammates are supposed to be and anticipating where opponents are going to be is an invaluable way to foster development in young children and adults.  The downside to some of these sports, especially football, is the risk of repeated head trauma.  New studies are showing the increased risk that repeated head injuries cause to children and young adults which can unfortunately lead to long term mental impairment or even death in extreme circumstances.  Baseball contains slightly less of the team coordination aspects but is high in regards to mental anticipation.

Chess & Piano

Chess

These 2 activities are excellent choices for growing minds.  They can be started at very young ages and can be started quite inexpensively.   Lower end digital keyboards can be purchased for as little as under one hundred dollars.  Once they are ready to move on to a more permanent solution you can find used pianos online.  If you would prefer to buy a new musical device many music stores will offer financing.  If you have a history of credit problems we can recommend a credit repair company to help fix your credit score in anticipation of trying to finance a musical instrument.  On the other hand chess can be started for as little as a couple dollars.  Used chess books and online video lectures are widely available for little to no cost at all.

On TV, Movies, & Other Media

Youtube screen

Television and movies are excellent forms of entertainment, but should be consumed in moderation.  Limiting TV time to a reasonable amount of time is a good start to keeping the brain active.  This especially includes online content delivery services like Youtube or Facebook.  These sites are designed to keep users engaged by feeding them highly addictive content.  It is a dangerous trap that should be monitored.