Recreation

Recreation is a time for rebuilding, replenishing and resting. It is important that a person should rest so that he can go back to school or work replenished. Everyone needs to indulge themselves in recreational activities. Some take it after a long schoolwork, others, after a week of hectic work and busy schedule. For some, they need it after a long day of school or work.
Some people do recreation for them to have fun, enjoy and restore themselves. There are many recreational activities to choose from. We can enjoy sports, hobbies or even pamper ourselves with yoga and massage. These activities help people divert their attention from what they are doing and help them go back to work replenish.

Meaning and Importance

Recreation comes from the Latin word, Recreare, which means to create a new, or to replenish or refresh. According to the book, Application and Leisure by Kathleen A. Codes and L. Ibrahim 1996, recreation is a term for which there are no universally agreed defenition. Howeever some authors, like John R. Kelly, defines recerationa as a Voluntary non-working activity that is organized for the attainment of personal and social benefits including restoration and social cohesion. He also stated that recreation are oppurtunities provided for the mind, body and emotion – through the participation in and appreciation of activities, environment and associations. While Cordes and Ibrahim further define recreation as a voluntary partiipation in leisure time activities that are meaningful and enjoyable to the persons involve. Martin and Esther Nuemeyer have another defenition, they define it as any activity persued during leisure... that is free time and pleasurable, having its won immediate appeal, not impelled by a delayed reward beyond itself or by any immediate necesity.

Recreation is an important part in our everyday life. It is very important to at least devote ourselves 10 to 20 minutes of our schedule doing different recreational activities because it relievs stress, contributes to life satisfaction, quality of life, health and wellness and have clinical applications to individuals with chronic pain and other health impairness, and socially redeeming

Purpose, Characteristics, Classification and Value

Its purpose is to fill the free time of a person, help him balance his emotional stability and prevent stress, prevent idleness, boredom and over fatigue.

Characteristics of Recreation:
• Refreshing
• Voluntary
• Social Redeeming
• Feeling f success, personal growth and pleasurable
• Reinforces a positive self-image
• It can be outdoor or indoor activities
• Fun
• Takes place during free time
• Satisfying
• wide range of activities (episode or lifetime)
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Classification of Recreation
• Resource-oriented: depends on the use of natural resources and occurs in natural settings.
• Intermediate: activities that take place in a natural setting, but require technical/mechanical equipment and personal skill.
• User-oriented: take place in man-made or modified areas and facilities.


Recreation can be:
Indoor
Situated in, or intended for use in the interior of a building like an indoor pool; and is carried on within doors like bad games, word games, puzzles, hobbies, indoor sports, etc.
Outdoor
Located in, done in, or suited to the open air: badminton and other outdoor games.Outdoor pursuits can be loosely considered to be the group of sports and activities which are dependent on the great outdoors, incorporating such things as hill walking, trekking, canoeing, kayaking, climbing, caving, and arguably broader groups such as water sports and snow sport. Outdoor sports most often include nature in the "sport". While obviously enjoyed by many as a bit of fun, an adrenaline rushes, or an escape from reality, outdoor sport is also frequently used as an extremely effective medium in education and teambuilding. It is this ethos that has given rise to links with young people, such as the Duke of Edinburgh's Award and PGL, and large numbers of outdoor education centers being established, as the stress on the importance of a balanced and widespread education continues to grow. Depending on the persons' desired level of adrenaline outdoors can be considered a type of hobby. As interest increases, so has the rise of commercial outdoor pursuits, with outdoor kit stores opening up in large numbers and thriving, as well as outdoor pursuit's journalism and magazines, both on paper and online. The increased accessibility of outdoor pursuit's resources has been the source of some negative publicity over the years also, with complaints of destroying the landscape. A widely-seen example is the destruction of hillsides as footpaths are eroded by excessive numbers of visitors.
Examples f Indoor Activities

Board game is a game in which counters or pieces that are placed on, removed from, or moved across a "board" (a remarked surface usually specific to that game). As do other form of entertainment, board games can represent nearly any subject. There are many different types and styles of board games, including those, at the most-basic level, that that have no inherent theme--such as Checkers--as well as more-complicated games with definite subjects, or even narratives, like Clue.

Word games and puzzles are generally engaged as a source of entertainment, but they have been found to serve a very useful and progressive educational purpose as well. For instance, young children can find enjoyment playing modestly competitive games such as Hangman, while naturally developing important language skills like spelling. Solving crossword puzzles, which requires familiarity with a larger vocabulary, is a pastime that mature adults have long credited with keeping their minds sharp. Most word games and puzzles require, as ingredients of success, swiftness of thought, a well-developed vocabulary, and excellent general language skills, including comprehension and spelling. In turn, these same skills are generally thought to become that much more heightened with continued play. There are popular televised word games with valuable monetary prizes for the winning contestants. Many word games enjoy international popularity across a multitude of languages, whilst some are unique to English-speakers.

Puzzle is a problem or enigma that challenges ingenuity. In a basic puzzle one is intended to piece together objects in a logical way in order to come up with the desired shape, picture or solution. Puzzles are often contrived as a form of entertainment, but they can also stem from serious mathematical or logistical problems -- in such cases, their successful resolution can be a significant contribution to mathematical research [1]. Solutions to puzzles may require recognizing patterns and creating a particular order. People with a high inductive reasoning aptitude may be better at solving these puzzles than others. Puzzles based on the process of inquiry and discovery to complete may be solved faster by those with good deduction skills.

Hobby is a spare-time recreational pursuit
Types of hobbies
Collecting
The hobby of collecting consists of acquiring specific items based on a particular interest of the collector. These collections of things are often highly organized, carefully cataloged, and attractively displayed. Since collecting depends on the interests of the individual collector, it may deal with almost any subject. The depth and breadth of the collection may also vary. Some collectors choose to focus on a specific subtopic within their area of general interest: for example, 19th Century postage stamps, milk bottle labels from Sussex, or Mongolian harnesses and tack. Others prefer to keep a more general collection, accumulating Star Trek merchandise, or stamps from all countries of the world. Some collections are capable of being completed, at least to the extent of owning one sample of each possible item in the collection (e.g. a copy of every book by Agatha Christie). Collectors who specifically try to assemble complete collections in this way are sometimes called "completists." Upon completing a particular collection, they may stop collecting, expand the collection to include related items, or begin an entirely new collection. The most popular fields in collecting have specialized commercial dealers that trade in the items being collected, as well as related accessories. Many of these dealers started as collectors themselves, then turned their hobby into a profession. There are some limitations on collecting, however. Someone who has the financial means to collect stamps might not be able to collect sports-cars, for example. One alternative to collecting physical objects is collecting experiences of a particular kind. Examples include collecting through observation or photography (especially popular for transportation, e.g. train spotting, aircraft spotting, metrophiles, bus spotting; see also I-Spy), bird-watching, and systematically visiting continents, countries, states, national parks, counties etc.
Games
A game is a structured or semi-structured recreational activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment (although sometimes for physical or vocational training). A goal that the players try to reach and a set of rules concerning what the players can or cannot do create the challenge and structure in a game, and are thus central to its definition. Known to have been played as far back as prehistoric times, games are generally distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration. Because a wide variety of activities are enjoyable, numerous types of games have developed. What creates an enjoyable game varies from one individual to the next. Age, understanding (of the game), intelligence level, and (to some extent) personality are factors that determine what games a person enjoys. Depending on these factors, people vary the number and complexity of objectives, rules, challenges, and participants to increase their enjoyment. Games generally involve mental and/or physical stimulation. For this reason, they are beneficial after a large meal or a long and tedious task, but counterproductive if played immediately before sleeping.[citation needed] Many games help develop practical skills and serve as exercise or perform an educational, situational or psychological role & also roaming.

Performing arts
Many hobbies involve performing by the hobbyist, such as acting, juggling, magic, dancing and other performing arts.
Creative Hobbies
Some hobbies result in an end product of sorts. Examples of this would be woodworking, jewelry making, playing an instrument, software projects, artistic projects, creating models out of card or paper called paper craft up to higher end projects like building or restoring a car, or building a computer from scratch. While these may just be for the enjoyment of the hobbyist, they sometimes have potential to be a small business.

Scale Modeling / Dioramas
Replicas of real things in a smaller scale go all the way back to prehistoric times, as small clay "dolls" and other children's toys have been found near known population areas. Greeks, Romans, and Persians took the form to a greater depth during their years of world domination, using scale replicas of enemy fortifications, coastal defense lines, and other geographic fixtures to plan battles. At the turn of the Industrial Age through the 1920's, families could more often afford things such as electric trains, wind up toys (typically boats or cars) and the increasingly valuable tin toy soldiers. Scale modeling as we know it today became popular shortly after World War II. Prior to 1946, children as well as adults were content in carving and shaping wooden replicas from block wood kits, often depicting enemy aircraft to help in identification in case of invasion. With the advent of modern plastics, the amount of skill required to get the basic shape accurately shown for any given subject was lessened, making it easier for people of all ages to begin assembling replicas in varying scales. Superheros, air planes, boats, cars, tanks, artillery, and even figures of soldiers became quite popular subjects to build, paint and display. Although almost any subject can be found in almost any scale, there are common scales for such miniatures which remain constant today... With the increased costs of good kits moving upward, and entertainment competition for youth moving more towards computers and video gaming in the home, the average age of the avid hobbyist is now much older than ever before - with adults making up the vast majority of enthusiasts.
Cooking
Cooking is an act of preparing food for eating. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort to achieve the desired result. Constraints on success include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools and the skill of the individual cooking. The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the myriad nutritional, aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural and religious considerations that impact upon it. Cooking requires applying heat to a food which usually, though not always, chemically transforms it, thus changing its flavor, texture, appearance, and nutritional properties. Cooking proper, as opposed to roasting, requires the boiling of water in a receptacle, and was practiced at least since the 10th millennium BC with the introduction of pottery. There is archaeological evidence of roasted foodstuffs, both animal and vegetable, in human (Homo erectus) campsites dating from the earliest known use of fire some 800,000 years ago.
Gardening
Gardening is the art of growing plants with the goal of crafting a purposeful landscape. Residential gardening most often takes place in or about a residence, in a space referred to as the garden. Although a garden typically is located on the land near a residence, it may also be located in a roof, in an atrium, on a balcony, in a window box, or on a patio or vivarium. Gardening also takes place in non-residential green areas, such as parks, public or semi-public gardens (botanical gardens or zoological gardens), amusement and theme parks, along transportation corridors, and around tourist attractions and hotels. In these situations, a staff of gardeners or groundskeepers maintains the gardens.
Reading
Reading, like reading books, magazines or newspapers, is very common.