Study: Too Many Structured Activities May Hinder Children's Executive Functioning

Good news for laid-back parents.

Study: Too Many Structured Activities May Hinder Children's Executive Functioning 

When children spend more time in structured activities, they get worse at working toward goals, making decisions, and regulating their behavior, according to a new study.
Instead, kids might learn more when they have the responsibility to decide for themselves what they're going to do with their time. 

Psychologists at the University of Colorado and the University of Denver studied the schedules of 70 six-year olds, and they found that the kids who spent more time in less-structured activities had more highly-developed self-directed executive function. 

Source: http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_now/2014/07/study_too_many_structured_activities_hinder_childrens_executive_functioning.html?cmp=SOC-EDIT-FB

Children need more unstructured free time for brain development. When children complain that they are bored, it is not so much that they are under-stimulated, but that their creativity could use a boost.

I once taught an imaginative 6-year-old boy who could entertain himself for long periods of time with a single piece of paper. He would experiment on how paper could make loud sounds, be used as a tool, and the different ways it could fly. When did he have the time to do this? For reasons unknown, his parents would drop him off for his class 45-minutes early(!) and most of his discoveries took place in his free time. He was also academically brilliant, but not particularly keen in following rules.

On the other hand, I have observed different children with different reactions when brought to a 'boring' place. There will be some who immediately devise a game or pretend play using anything they can find - sticks, stones, leaves, paper, containers... anything they can get their hands on. And there will be others who will complain that they are bored and that there is nothing for them to do. Often, much of their time has been filled with adult-directed activity and toy-directed play (as opposed to child-directed play with open-ended toys). So much so that they struggle in the absence of instructions. 

I remember another 6-year-old boy I taught a few years back. He was always very serious, much like his helicopter parents, who pretty much hovered over him and micromanaged everything he did. After a class discussion, I distributed a worksheet on the topic we had just talked about. Some children got to work right away. Others began when they saw their friends start writing. After a minute, the boy raised his hand.

Boy: What do I do now?

Me: What do you think you should do now?

Boy: I don't know.

Me: What's in front of you?

Boy: (points to worksheet) This?

Me: (nods)

Boy: Do I do this? 

Me: What do you think?

Boy: (thinks for a while.) Yes?

Me: Yes!

Boy: Now?

Me: What do you think?

Student: (thinks for another while) Yes. 

In the absence of instructions, some children struggle, while some just figure things out. Perhaps the less we hover over our children, the more they will figure out for themselves.

Time to re-look our daily homeschool routine. 

More unstructured time for them means more free time for me! :)