Back to school: Exams, homework, and after school activities

Today’s children’s schedule is more compact than many adults. It involves a lot of performance driven activities, such as exam preparation, homework, music lessons, competitive sports, potential tutoring, and more. This constant performance and active mode of children limits creative play, boredom, and phantasy. It further requires parent involvement, rather than time with peers or by oneself.   Recommendations: Less is more! Reduce the number of activities. Let your child decide the activities they want to engage in. Skip homework, if possible. Tutoring only if absolutely necessary. Balance expectations with regard to exams. Let your child guide the way and set the pace in academics. Intervene as little as possible: Autonomy is key! Keep empty spaces in the child’s agenda for creative, self-directed play. @drschwank @unesurcent @optimalperformancezurich