You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.
Some people believe that children are given too much free time. They feel that this time should be used to do more school work. How do you think children should spend their free time?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
You should write at least 250 words.
Sample Answer 1:
Many people think that modern children have an abundance of free time and doing more school work in their free time is necessary. As parents, being concerned about children’s grades and studies is natural but overpressuring them to study and get top grades might backfire. Children’s leisure activity should be fun yet interesting which will eventually teach them important lessons and make them more creative.
Schoolwork is definitely important. But if children are forced to study all day long without having enough time for recreation or refreshment, it will increase their stress level and negatively affect their physical and cognitive development in later stages of their lives. I believe, free time means a child should be allowed to do things that our of their normal routine.
For children, it can be playing sports in the playground or a park with other kids of their age. This will teach them how to be a team player and enhance their social skills. They can also play educative video games for a few minutes and watch cartoon shows. Besides, practising a hobby sounds impressive to me. For this, a family should be open-minded and try to find the hidden talents of their offsprings. I believe that not all children are born with particular talents. It is our duty as parents, teachers and relatives who motivate them and engaging them in extracurricular activities such as drawing, dancing, singing etc are also necessary. We have to understand that an unsocial adolescent with good academic grades cannot make much impact on our society and cannot climb the professional success.
In conclusion, even though studying and preparing for exams is very important for the future of a child, we should not enforce them to be occupied with it all the time. Instead, various social, fun and creative activities in free time will make them more prepared for the future.
[Written by – Mahmud]
Sample Answer 2:
Different individuals have their own opinion on leisure time utilisation by students. Critics may say that this period should be utilised for learning school subjects. However, I feel that they should be enrolled in various extra-curriculum classes in their free time. In this essay, we will analyse how this will help their psychological as well as physical development.
To begin with, getting involved in other activities can boost the functioning of the brain. For instance, if young people opt for mind games such as Chess, it can help them to improve their thinking ability. This will not only enhance their cognitive performance but can also serve as the exercise for the brain. Thus, it is apparent that youngsters who prefer to perform such activities in the available spell will be mentally strong.
In addition to this, performing outdoor activities allow these teenagers to carry out different body movements. A good illustration for this is the outdoor activities such as Volleyball, cricket and so on which involve a lot of running. Pupils participating in these games are forced to execute different body movements and thereby, this helps them to improve their physical wellbeing. Therefore, the benefits of spending an ideal time playing games are difficult to debunk.
After analysing these areas, it is obvious that investing time in extra-curriculum will offer advantages with regards to the development of young people. It has now been shown that students should be registered in hobby classes instead of forcing them to concentrate only on schoolwork. It is thus hoped that apart from schools, the government will also encourage pupils to undertake such activities.