Question

Explain structured leisure activities and unstructured leisure activities

Answer 1

Leisure activities are important for the proper development of every child in physical, social, emotional, communication, personality and other domains. Leisure activities are those activities which are co-curricular in nature and makes a child learn and execute specific skills and knowledge which leads to certain levels of self satisfaction. There are mainly two kinds of leisure activities to be taken into account, which are structured and unstructured leisure activities.

The structured leisure activities are those which are assigned amd decided by the parents for certain kinds of development and learning of their children. Parents are the main caregivers of the children and these activities are decided by them depending on their own discretion and their perceived child interest. For example, when parents make their son or daughter join a dance class or a cricket coaching or a swimming lesson, these activities will be kept under structured leisure activities as they were assigned by the parents.

The unstructured leisure activities are those activities which the children assigns for themselves to be involved in during those time when they are free from other tasks. These activities are not structured and fixed but may vary in nature depending upon the mood and situation in which the child is in. For example, when a child starts playing with his collection of pens, starts playing fantasy play with a toy or starts rolling on the ground and take it as a play, it can be said that he is involving himself in an unstructured leisure activities.

Both kinds of leisure activities are important for the development of the child and the parents must structure leisure activities properly.