By Thomas Greham

Education is a lifelong process. Children are particularly voracious learners, finding a great deal that is new and exciting in the world around them. The possibilities are endless, and their education can encompass almost anything. And, though it is hardly necessary for them to try every activity out there, exposure to a breadth of topics and experiences can help stimulate their interest in learning and provide them with the opportunity to discover what they love.

Schools, of course, remain the primary sites for education, but there are numerous other resources that can aid in a child’s development, including tutoring services, clubs, sports teams and classes, art and music organizations and even the workforce. These resources can offer balance and reinforcement to classroom learning, enhancing some lessons and preparing students for new ones.

Extracurricular activities offer an ideal climate for building core values in children, and most youth programs focus on certain values in addition to a skill set. The YMCA, for instance, emphasizes the values of responsibility, respect, caring and honesty in each of the activities it offers. Jean Finney, director of youth and family services for the Patrick Henry branch (Ashland) of the YMCA of Greater Richmond, said children who participate in YMCA activities tend to interact with their peers better, become more well-rounded and more inclined to help out and be open and honest. “We want to instill these values in the children in our programs so that they will be ready for society,” Finney said.

Activities such as sports, art, music and dance give children especially participatory ways of learning. These activities allow students to thrive individually while working together with others in a collaborative environment, such as a team or ensemble. They are enabled to learn actively in engaging and memorable ways, sometimes providing passions that will give them fulfillment for their entire lifetimes.

Susan D’Angelo Brown, director of the Center for Creative Arts in Glen Allen, said of benefits to children, broadening their perspective, exercising important muscles and providing outlets for their creative impulses. Children not only learn skills but they engage with a diversity of cultures and historical times.

Brown said art education helps children develop small motor skills and shape and pattern recognition. She said they “develop critical thinking skills as they learn how to envision, plan and execute a painting or a sculpture. Drawing and painting also teach children observation skills and lead to an enhanced awareness of the world around them.”

“A non-competitive environment where children can explore different artistic mediums also builds self-confidence and is plain old-fashioned fun,” Brown said. “Art allows students of all levels a vehicle for selfexpression, a way of making meaning from their life experiences.”

Music education helps develop brain areas involved in both language and reasoning, Brown said. Music is a rare left brain/ right brain activity that strengthens both the ability to process language and to solve mathematical problems (Silicon Valley is known to be full of accomplished musicians). Music offers its students the opportunity to be creative while operating within structure -- to be expressive and disciplined at once, according to Brown.



Artistic and athletic activities include a range of styles that allow children to seek out the ones that most fit their personality. For instance, the Jessica Morgan School of Dance, which has two Richmond-area locations, offers classes in a host of traditions -- from hip-hop to ballroom.

Mike Grossman, a head instructor at Dong’s Karate Studio, which has four branches in the Richmond area, said activities such as Tae Kwon Do also help children develop improved concentration -- an elusive skill for many kids. Grossman said children can strengthen focus almost unwittingly through activities they love, which is important because “you can’t force a child to do anything. The key is to make them want to do it.”

“We all want our kids to develop focus, especially at a young age, when it seems to be about two seconds long,” Grossman said. “We help them learn to focus and concentrate by giving them goals that they want to achieve. They focus because they want to reach those goals.”

Similarly, children can learn management and leadership skills by participating in activities they enjoy. The Girl Scouts, for example, have enacted a program, which is called Pathways, that emphasizes leadership development by giving girls opportunities for responsibility, according to Janice Williams, assistant CEO of the Girl Scout Commonwealth Council of Virginia. The program offers girls a variety of avenues to take charge of events or activities and “to learn by doing,” typically in collaboration with other girls or community organizations, allowing flexibility for the girls’ personal interests, ages and skills.

Tutoring services, such as local outposts of the Huntington Learning Center and the Tutoring Club, enhance students’ academic learning experiences by offering focus and individualized attention. Charles Tysinger, franchisee for the Huntington Learning Center in Glen Allen, said students who begin to work with tutors often have lost confidence in their ability to learn and “their motivation is shot.”

Intensive work with a tutor can begin to reverse that downward trend and revive a student’s hunger to learn. Tysinger said “we want to show them success.” Tutors at Huntington work on steadily improving their students’ skill sets while paying close attention to the students’ psyches. For instance, Tysinger said, tutors might begin work in areas below a student’s grade level, helping them to find something to grasp onto before the climb upward commences.

“It’s not necessarily going to be quick,” Tysinger said. “It’s sometimes a big change for the child and it’s not easy or simple. We’re not looking to put on a band-aid but to build a foundation that will last.”

Sometimes students who struggle in an academic setting might have a learning disability as an obstacle. There are various options for surmounting this kind of deterrent. The Richmond LearningRx learning center tests a student’s cognitive skills, which its founder Ken Gibson identifies as “mental tools needed to process and learn what is taught in an academic environment,” and then identifies and targets for improvement any of those skills that might be getting in the way of academic success. Gibson says cognitive skills that might need strengthening in a child with a learning disability include attention, short-term memory, long-term memory, processing speed, logic and reasoning, auditory processing and visual processing.