While school sports are incredibly popular activities during middle and high school years, they aren’t a good fit for all students. Some students simply aren’t physically inclined towards sports teams, and many others just aren’t interested in the individual sports. If you have a teenager, you want to ensure they’re dedicating their free time to extra curricular activities they truly enjoy, as student enjoyment of an activity is one of the biggest indicators of their long-term commitment and likely success. To set your non-sports-interested student up for maximum success in their teen years, it’s best to explore and lean into afterschool activities that spark their interests, proclivities, and strengths. If you need some assistance finding rewarding extracurricular activities for teens, take a look at the following list:
- A SPIKE Hobby or Independent Passion Project
One of the biggest misconceptions surrounding extracurricular activities is that teens need to find or join existing school clubs, competitive teams, summer camps, or organized groups to make their involvement count. In reality, it’s actually the students who identify a unique interest and embark on an independent project that sometimes make the most meaningful and impressive dents in our world and find fulfillment from a young age.
Rather than pushing your teen into group activities offered by their school or community organization, parents and teens can probe eclectic and diverse hobbies and projects, from woodworking to building robots, sewing and other crafts, insect identification, building a YouTube channel, horseback riding, martial arts, designing video games, collecting items, and more. Many of the more obscure and uncommon hobbies loved by teenagers are also productive and educational, so your student’s unusual pastime could spawn a career interest, volunteer work, or be the competitive advantage that sets them apart in the future. For example:
- A student interested in robotics could start a business building and selling robots or teaching other students to do so.
- A student interested in insect identification could build an entire insect-related blog or podcast to educate others.
- A teen interested in sewing or crafts could donate creations to homeless shelters or orphanages.
In all these examples, students have taken their independent hobbies based on their own interests and transformed them into full-fledged world-impacting endeavors that educate, give back, or improve lives. By doing so, they’re also cultivating an impressive “spike”, or independent pursuit and accomplishment that will set them apart on future resumes, interviews, and college applications (and give them a leg up in the admissions process, should they pursue university education).
You can encourage your teen’s new skills discovery through club participation, seeking out niche organizations or online classes, or virtual research on Google, podcasts, audiobooks, and educational videos. In fact, thanks to today’s advanced technology, “virtual” hobbies can be a great option, as they’re plentiful, affordable, and accessible.
- Get a Part-Time Job (Accelerate their social skills and financial literacy)
Part-time jobs are perfect for teenagers because they teach young people how to manage their money better and give them something productive to do in the meantime. They can mow people’s lawns, babysit, work in a retail store, detail cars, and so much more. An extracurricular activity doesn’t have to be school-related, and a part-time job is just as valid and valuable. Part-time jobs arguably foster more real-world life skills teens will use for the rest of their lives, as well as triggering personal financial literacy and money management.
Regardless of their youth, learning how to deal with people, show up at a certain time, budget money, and perfect employable skills is extremely important. When teenagers have a job, they learn all of this and much more, which helps them determine what they might want to do for a living once they graduate. Because they’re young, these teens have plenty of time to explore vast opportunities and change jobs if the first one they choose isn’t a fit.
- Art (Which Could Inspire a Portfolio, Service Project, or Small Business!)
Many teenagers are very artistic, and since schools almost always offer art classes and even art clubs, they shouldn’t have any problems finding something to occupy their time. Teenagers want and need a way to express themselves, especially if they feel very creative, and art-centered activities give them a great opportunity and outlet they can keep for the rest of their lives.
Even better, art encompasses many types of creativity, from sculpting to painting and jewelry-making to china painting, while also opening up the doors for careers, service projects, and business opportunities. For example, The Memory Project is an organization that allows artists to share their work globally by matching them up with orphans in developing countries and creating custom portraits as an act of service. This service involvement is a great way for teen artists to hone their skills, build up a portfolio, gain exposure for their art, and positively impact a disadvantaged child.
Students don’t have to seek out official non-profit organizations to turn their art into a service project; they could instead start their own by contacting local hospitals or senior centers and offering to bring art to sick kids or the elderly. Alternatively – or in addition – students could build a small business around their art, either getting involved in local art shows, fairs, and organizations, or simply building up an independent following and promoting their art locally, in community centers, religious organizations, or online or on social media. Either way, a seedling of artistic talent could turn into a much larger endeavor that could become a mainstay of that student’s future.
- Volunteer Their Time
In any given city, there are tons of opportunities to volunteer, and this is a great way for young people to feel like they’re contributing to society. Food banks, homeless shelters, women’s shelters, and more are great ways for teenagers to spend their time. They’ll learn important people skills and gain awareness about people who may not be as fortunate as they are. As young people have sporadic schedules, volunteering allows them to work when they’re able to work and not when it’s inconvenient for them.
Even better, volunteer opportunities allow teens to hone in on an activity that represents their interests. If they love kids or they’re interested in working with homeless people, they can easily find a volunteer opportunity that lets them explore that interest even further. They can volunteer to read to kids at the library or take care of dogs at an animal shelter. Whatever their interests are, they can easily find a volunteer opportunity that will help them learn more about it and enjoy it even more.
Volunteering isn’t just a nice thing to do; it’s also a brilliant way to fast-track your teen’s social skills, empathy, maturity, and injustice awareness. Once your student’s eyes are opened to the disparity of lived experiences among different groups, they may decide they want to pursue public policy to make changes or create solutions to society’s most devastating and pervasive problems, from education inequity to disability inclusivity.
- Take Dance Classes (in-person or online!)
Many teenagers need more exercise, and dance classes are a great way to accomplish this, while also boosting their physical health and mood. Regular dance classes give teens a chance to get daily or weekly exercise, limit their screen time, improve their stamina, and boost their mood due to the endorphins released by physical activity. What’s more, online dance classes allow students to work out and improve their technique virtually, are easy to find, and are often inexpensive. For busy teens, this also means that they can take the classes at times that are convenient to their schedule and not someone else’s.
If you’re wondering whether dance expertise is all that helpful or transferrable of a skill, consider the fact that some of the most successful young teen sensations today – who’ve become multi-millionaire social media stars, professional entertainers, and entrepreneurs – began with dance (think Maddie Ziegler and Charlie D’Amelio). If your middle or high school student has an inkling of curiosity about or interest in pursuing an entertainment-related career, dance could be a great and healthy entry point, be that tap, jazz, lyrical, ballet, or any other form.
- Learn a Musical Instrument
If your student is musically inclined or simply interested in learning a new musical instrument or honing a current skill (like singing), participating in after-school band, orchestra, or chorus could be a rewarding endeavor. One of the best things about musical engagement is that it’s proven to improve cognitive abilities, as well as to relieve stress (improving their mental health) and improve memory skills. Therefore, a musical extracurricular’s benefits could transcend far beyond the one instrument or skill they’ve chosen to pursue and even enhance their academic performance and school work.
If your student wants to learn an instrument or skill that isn’t offered by their school’s array of band, orchestra, and choral options or after-school programs, you can seek out private lessons, including virtual private lessons that grant students access to the best professionals around the world. Virtual private lessons also open up the floodgates for your student to find the perfect teacher just about any instrument, including guitar, piano, saxophone, violin, flute, and so many more.
- Explore Activities at Your House of Worship
Whether a teenager goes to a church, synagogue, or mosque, they can usually find tons of activities geared towards people their age. Most houses of worship have a wide range of opportunities for teens to get involved, ranging from singing in the choir to helping with baptisms to leading community service initiatives, participating in all types of ministries, and even volunteering their time in the church or synagogue office or Sunday school.
For students who are already members of a house of worship, exploring available opportunities to help out can be one of the easiest ways to exercise their diverse interests or talents, whether they wish to get involved in the service, work with babies and children in the nursery, participate in religious instruction, or even assist with local event marketing. This can be a win-win situation because houses of worship often need the help, and teenagers are always looking for something productive to do.
- Join (or Start) a Club
The end of the school day is the time when different clubs and organizations come to life. Dozens of different clubs exist for enthusiasts of foreign language, music, art, academic subjects, chess club, 4-H, civic organizations, those that serve the local community, and just about everything else. In fact, if a teenager cannot find an activity to join, they can even start their own interest-based or service-based club to develop their leadership skills, creativity, and elevate their social life!
Schools also offer clubs that are sponsored by other outside organizations, including scouting for both girls and boys. It’s amazing to discover all of the clubs that are available at most high schools today. School-affiliated clubs have versatile involvement requirements, so students can be as involved as they want and even rise the ranks of leadership.
- Listen to Podcasts (or Create your Own!)
Podcasts are available for all areas of interest, including business, e-books, political news, religious news, or any special interest that exists. There are podcasts that talk about paranormal events, entertainment and celebrities, current events, pop culture, and history, to name a few. For the most part, teenagers can find podcasts they’ll really be able to get into, learn from, and enjoy without any trouble. This is because there are literally hundreds of topics discussed on these podcasts, maybe even thousands.
That said, creative or entrepreneurially inspired teens may even choose to plan, script, and launch their own podcast! Creating a podcast from scratch will give teens a robust and hands-on experience of turning an idea into a tangible, audible outcome and sharing it with their friends, families, and the broader audiences interested in their chosen topic. Starting a podcast can be one of the most rewarding creative and educational endeavors for students, and they’ll exercise a host of diverse skills, from researching to content planning, scripting, audio editing (and maybe video editing), marketing, and more.
