Ellie Mitchell, the executive director of
the Maryland Out of School Time Network,
says that after-school programs allow kids to
interact with each other more casually than
they are able to in school. “There is more
space and time in after-school for kids to
be kids together,” Mitchell says. “Free play,
imagination and creativity goes on in those
spaces that structured time in the school day
doesn’t often allow for.”
Due to the relative freedom of after-school
programs, they are often environments where
kids discover their passions.

“People frequently say in their reflections
on their own after-school experience that
that is where they found the thing they fell
in love with,” Mitchell says. “Often they are
introduced to the passion in an informal
learning setting rather than the formal,
because you have that freedom to explore it
in a way that has less pressure attached to it.”
To find out what they like, kids should be
introduced to a variety of activities. In the
early years, Mitchell recommends parents
choose a variety of programs for their
children, but eventually young people can
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pursue what they’re interested in.

Dr. Kaushal Amatya, pediatric psychologist
for the divisions of nephrology and cardiology
at Children’s National Hospital and professor
of pediatrics and psychiatry at the George
Washington University School of Medicine,
says it is important to encourage kids to focus
on what they’re good at. But that shouldn’t be
the only factor.

“Parents should try to understand what
they see as some skills that the children are
developing,” Amatya says, “and try to harness
those by getting the children more involved