Play, activities and enrichment: 10 decisions to make together
Free play versus scheduled activities, sports, music, camps and languages at home.
1. Free play versus organized activities
How much of your child's time is unstructured play versus scheduled activities and lessons, from mostly free play to a full calendar.
5 options · Your call · Preschool
2. Daily outdoor and nature time
How much time your child spends outdoors, from incidental to a daily habit in most weather to outdoor activity as a family identity.
4 options · Your call · Toddler
3. Reading culture
How reading fits into family life: reading aloud daily from birth, a bedtime story, books available for the child to pick up, or reading targets and rewards.
4 options · Well established · Around the birth
4. Languages at home
Which languages your child hears and speaks at home and how you pass on a second language: one parent one language, a minority language at home, or classes and immersion.
5 options · Evidence leans one way · During pregnancy
5. Sports intensity
How serious sport becomes: not at all, just for fun, school teams, competitive clubs, or travel and elite programs.
5 options · Your call · School age
6. Sampling or specializing
Whether your child tries many sports through adolescence or settles on one early and plays it year-round.
3 options · Evidence leans one way · School age
7. Music lessons
Whether and when your child learns an instrument: only if they ask, a trial period, required for some years, or required with enforced practice.
4 options · Your call · School age
8. Practice and quitting
What happens when your child wants to stop an activity: stop any time, finish the season, replace it with something else, or never quit core commitments.
4 options · Your call · School age
9. Competition, winning and losing
How you handle competition: avoiding it when young, focusing on participation and fun, keeping score but praising effort, or treating winning as important.
4 options · Evidence leans one way · School age
10. Summers and camp
How summers are spent: unstructured at home, day camps, specialty camps, sleepaway camp, or academics and work for teens.
5 options · Your call · School age