5_1 EXTRACURRICULAR ACITIVITIES AND FREE TIME

Spending your leisure time in a meaningful way in a Czech-speaking environment is very important for the child‘s successful integration and rapid learning of the Czech language. In the Czech Republic, there is a traditional and well-established system with a variety of extracurricular activities that we can only recommend!

THIS INCLUDES:

  • sports activities and teams
  • art, music and dance groups
  • tourist clubs and the scout movement
  • other leisure time activities (chess, model-building, science clubs…)
  • foreign language learning
  • low-threshold clubs

Some of these activities are organized independently (e.g. sports clubs), but the majority are managed by  specialised organisations, most often:

  • Youth Centres (Dům dětí a mládeže – DDM) these public institutions are usually founded by municipalities.  They organise extracurricular activities for affordable prices.
  • Elementary Art School (Základní umělecká škola – ZUŠ)
  • Many extracurricular activities, especially for the youngest children, are usually available at the same primary schools or kindergartens that the child goes to and can be attended straight from the after-school club. Many language schools organise language activities for children.
TIPS:
Family leisure time

  • Children can also be encouraged to learn Czech when spending leisure time with their families.  We recommend watching or listening to Czech fairy-tales or films (audiobooks are also suitable), regular evening programming on TV (Večerníček) and music, books and magazines for children. It is also important to connect the child’s first language and with their knowledge of Czech. Bilingual materials are a very good tool for this – for example the Kamarádi magazine (Friends) published by the Zaedno association. We also advise to taking family trips to see Czech cultural heritage and natural landscape, etc.
  • A great place to spend free time or prepare for school are public libraries. Get a membership card and you can access all the available books, magazines and audiovisual materials. Computers with an internet connection are available there. Libraries also organise various cultural programmes or provide tutoring.

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