‘Playing makes it fun’ in out-of-school activities: Children’s organised leisure

Abstract

The aim of this article is to focus on how children perceive their time spent in organised out-of-school activities in Finland and establish whether these activities provide an arena for children’s leisure. The article is based on two empirical studies, one on after-school activities and another on school sports clubs at the elementary school level. The most meaningful features for children were found to be time to play freely with friends and taking part in designing activities. Out-of-school activities are supervised and controlled because of various societal and educational requirements. The tension between children’s views and institutional requirements is discussed.