To think that too many activities are made competitive?

[IfIonlyhadsomesleep]

It seems that more and more of the things that my dc enjoy for the activity's sake, because its fun, or they can see their own personal progress are being made competitive, either by offering a prize or by giving a "worker of the week" type award. Obviously, some things are always going to have competition involved, but dd's had prizes for homework that would have been interesting anyway and ds's preschool activity now has a trophy given out each week, which makes some children quite upset. They used to love the activity anyway, it was challenging but with hugely enthusiastic coaches who praise and support. They all make progress, able and less so alike. So why the need to rank one person against another?

Worker of the week awards are generally a reward for effort or exceeding personal goals/ability and are a good motivator for a lot of children.

Worker of the week is surely for progression as opposed to best performance? It should be

I agree with you generally, sirzy-at dd's school they work well, particularly as they are given out to all the children almost on a rota, so they take time to find something that child has worked hard at. Ds's one though is definitely given out for achievement and they don't all have the chance to get it if they're not good at it. And they're very little to have a long term concept of working hard next time to improve and therefore win it.

I think prizes are good and motivating, but too many is unnecessary. A prize for homework is probably unnecessary for example, but I think 'worker of the week' awards are a good idea.