Extracurriculars: balancing busyness, church and community connections

It’s that time of year! Parents are busily signing their kids up for summer sports—water polo, cricket, baseball, athletics … and before you know it the end-of-year dance/music concert season will also be upon us.

But how much is too much when it comes to extracurricular activities?

As Christians, how do we balance these activities with our commitment to church?

How can we approach the whole subject of extracurricular activities in a distinctly Christian way?

In our most recent Timeless Parenting conversation we chatted about all this—and more—with father of four, Anthony Penn.

In this episode, we talk about the good things that extracurricular activities can teach our children and the benefits of our whole family getting involved in the community organisations that run them. We also discuss how our Christian values shape our approach to extracurricular activities and how we can make sure that church is not just squeezed in as an optional extra. We talk about how to navigate hard conversations, such as when we have to say no to an activity or when a child wants to quit. We finish by thinking through some of the ways we can intentionally build genuine connections with the other families we cross paths with.

This inspiring and insightful conversation will change how you see extracurricular activities!

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You can also find our podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms.

Mothers Union Sydney runs an annual seminar about Christian life and parenting. Listen to talks from previous seminars on Soundcloud.

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If you want to get in touch with us to offer some feedback or suggest a topic, you can write to us at: timelessparenting@youthworks.net

Timeless Parenting is brought to you by Growing Faith, a ministry of Youthworks Media and Mothers Union Sydney.

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