Current After School Club Trends: Life Skills

In the third instalment of our series of current after school club trends, we look at activities geared to life skills. Introducing kids to the basics of everyday life will set them up with skills they can use in the future.

Photo by pink sherbet on flickr

1. Mini Entrepreneur

Teaching kids that their creative ideas really can make money is fantastic, and dedicating an after school club to developing these ideas will help sow the seeds for the entrepreneurs of the future. Kids can brain storm, create products, market them, and present them to a board of ‘professionals’ (peers and teachers). Approaching it in the style of BBC’s The Apprentice is a great way to make it current too!

2. Let’s Get Cooking

What goes into our food is heavily scrutinised these days, with kids meals under the biggest spotlight. Learning how to make healthier choices and put balanced meals together can lead children towards a better lifestyle, and may even teach their parents a thing or two! Why not set it up like Ready, Steady, Cook! to introduce a little bit of competition?!

3. Moneywise

A subject that can be tailored to any age, and practiced through a range of activities like working out pocket money and shop based tasks for primary school ages, and budgeting, saving, and managing debt for older pupils. Designed to introduce children and teenagers to money management, finance orientated after school clubs are becoming more popular.

Photo by stevendepolo on flickr

 4. The Great School Bake Off

The BBC’s Bake Off has certainly increased interest in creating culinary delights, so why not embrace it? A baking club can introduce pupils to not only the basics of baking edible treats, but also the safety elements of using the relevant equipment. Cooking is one of the most important life skills, as is the practicalities of working in a kitchen, and who knows, perhaps you could have your own Bake Off?

 5. School Sewing Bee

Kids always feel a great sense of achievement when they produce something themselves, and an after school club geared to sewing is one that will inspire them to get creating. From the basics of threading a needle, to activities like quilting and making crafts for easter and christmas, introducing kids to sewing will set them up with a skill for life