What to Look for in an Afterschool Program
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Ages 5-10 | Ages 10-14 | Ages 14-18
Elementary: Ages 5-10
Characteristics of Age Group (5-10):
- High energy and need lots of activity
- Practicing large muscle and fine motor skills
- Developing physical flexibility
- Growing attention span
- Respond to simple rules and limits
- Eager to learn
- Creative
- Beginning to reason
- Feel their ideas count
- Easily hurt and insulted
- Identify with the family
- Eager to please
- Enjoy small groups
- Emphasize fairness
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Wide variety of activities and choices, but offered under a set routine
- Frequent individual interaction with adults
- Games with simple rules
- Quiet areas as well as noisy areas
- Outside experiences
- Imaginative play opportunities
- Some clear responsibilities like clean-up
- Projects that apply school day lessons about the family and community
- Opportunities to read aloud, silently, and to talk about books and ideas
- Matching, ordering and sorting activities
- Opportunities to apply arithmetic problems in real-world ways
- Small experiments with everyday products
- Nature walks and talks
- Opportunities to work with a variety of materials for projects
- Physical activities that do not emphasize competition, such as jump rope, marbles, jacks and kites
- Music, dance and drama opportunities
- Opportunities to try experiences from diverse cultures
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Preadolescents & Teens: Ages 10-14
Characteristics of Age Group (10-24):
- High energy and need lots of activity
- Like to achieve and be seen as competent
- Seem inconsistent in ideas and moods
- Use logic and reasoning
- Think beyond the immediate experience
- Can exchange ideas
- Seek independence
- Want voice in decisions
- Feel awkward and embarrassed in some situations
- Need praise and approval
- Identify strongly with peers
- Begin experimentation
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Wide variety of options
- Connections to real-world experience
- Opportunities to interact in large and small groups as well as individual recognition
- Experiences that explore ethics and values with respected adults
- Opportunities to serve others
- Physical activity
- Opportunities for decision-making and leadership
- Opportunities to apply school day lessons through performances and projects
- Experiences emphasizing reasoning and problem-solving in art, science, mathematics
- Quiet times for homework with adult help and peer help when needed
- Games that provide opportunities to practice basic skills, such as chess, checkers, puzzles, word games
- Wide range of reading activities with discussion of the ideas found in the books
- Experiences built on a wide diversity of cultures and ethnic groups
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Teens: Ages 14-18
Characteristics of Age Group (14-18):
- Concerned about body and appearance
- Highly developed motor skills
- Worry about clumsiness, illness and diet
- Think abstractly
- Learn by doing
- Less influenced by parents, more influenced by peers
- Need and demand more freedom and privacy
- Mask true feelings
- Need praise and adult recognition
- Admire heroes that demonstrate characteristics of friendship and romance
- Recognize diversity of ideas
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- Presentations and projects that involve appearance
- Opportunities to discuss and address physical risk, including smoking, drugs, drinking, and sexual activity
- Opportunities to tutor younger children
- Opportunities to show competence in a public setting
- Individual projects as well as teamwork in small and large groups
- Substantial choice with clear limits
- Opportunities to express feelings through projects and activities
- One-on-one opportunities to talk with adults
- Loud and quiet areas and activities
- Discussions of diverse ideas and opinions with adults and peers
- Specific help with skill areas that are causing problems
- Opportunities to catch up or move ahead with academic interests
- Opportunities to work on school day projects and papers with library and Internet support
- Problem-solving and reasoning skills practice
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