What is a hobby ? Well anything that a kid likes to do on a frequent basis and it helps his/her physical and mental growth. These could be both physical and mental, and depending on the temperament of the kids, they will generally choose from one. For example, kids with high energies will tend to choose playground activities as hobbies and similarly kids that are shy and introvert in nature, will tend to pick up indoor activities like reading books, painting, music as their hobbies.

The following benefits can be seen from hobbies of kids:

• Build confidence
• Make friends
• Improve mental health
• Develop teambuilding skills
• Improve organisational skills
• Learn problem solving
• Set achievable goals
• Gain attention to detail

Success breeds confidence. So if a kid plays well in football his confidence will be higher and he will learn the art of building confidence as now he has tasted victory, and now it needs to be replicated in other fields of life. Whether he does it or not is not the question but the path to victory has been discovered by the kid himself and therefore the chances of its replication are quite high.

Most outdoor and indoor hobbies require pairing up. This teaches the kid the importance and requirements of working with unknown entities. Aren’t they going to need this crucial art the whole of their life. This will also expose them to disagreements, leadership qualities, decision making and losing. Thinking on their feet and using their brains for situational adjustments are other benefits that will be derived from this activity.

The brain of the child develops at a maximum rate while in the age group 0-10, various studies have proved this. The utilisation of the brain in a hobby that is new to it requires conditioning of the brain and continuous conditioning develops certain parts of the brain that are required on a regular basis so be it puzzle solving, singing, dancing, playing etc., the brain is continuously engaged and hence its growth pattern is unique and strong.

Teambuilding is an art that we humans have needed since we moved out of the caves in prehistoric times. The need for this is even more today in the era of social media wherein we know and talk to people thousands of miles away but do not know our neighbours. This isolation has impacted our society wherein we have forgotten the art of talking, discussing, sharing and caring for each other.

An organisation today is a collection or a group of people working towards a common objective. This objective could be governance in case of government departments, profit making in the case of companies, social service in the case of NGO’s or working in religious places in the case of trusts. Each requires unknown groups of people to work together for long times by keeping aside their personal issues, interests, egos and desires. A child exposed early to living in groups will tend to adjust better later in life when made part of such groupings.

To win in a situation requires the group and its team members to think out of the box solutions and what could be better if the kids are exposed to such situations in their hobbies. Since the child is not carrying any old baggage with him, he doesn’t have to respond in any stereo typed way of thinking and hence pushing him in such situations makes the solution oriented approach a part of life and thinking innovatively.

Depression in today’s society is a common problem, isn’t it. A major reason for it being failure that comes from setting unachievable goals and then not being able to achieve them. So the real issue here is capability versus ability of the individual. The kid will generally set achievable goal for himself as he doesn’t have any society or peer pressure to look upto and allowing this to continue will make him differentiate between ideal vs achievable goals.

The devil is in the detail, isn’t it so. Often we miss the minutest details while looking at the bigger and picture and often the solutions for most of the situation or issues is answered therein. So how do we learn to look at the details of the task in hand. Well the bottoms up approach is the easiest way to be aware of the details. The child cannot look at the bigger picture, at his current age and lack of worldly exposure, so continuous exposure to situations and tasks at hand will ensure working on the details every time and make it a habit.