Overview of Leisure & Hobby Courses:
Geography (2)
Bakery / Bread baking (14)
Animals / Pets (11)
Photography (3)
History (1)
Guitar (7)
Religion & Theology (25)
Woodworking (6)
Fashion (35)
Music (74)
Piercing & Tattoo (4)
Painting (21)
Drawing (62)
Landscaping (26)
Writing stories (5)
Wine making course (14)
Brew your own beer (7)
Collecting Stamps (Philately)
Basic computer Skills (18)
Hobby
A hobby is generally understood to be a relaxing activity, which is regularly performed in one’s spare time. A sense of personal satisfaction is the most important motivation. Hobbies are practiced by young and old out of interest and for pleasure, not as paid work. Examples are collecting stamps, amateur photography and membership of a theater association. Practicing a hobby can lead to considerable knowledge, experience and skill.
Practicing sports can be done on a hobby basis, but it serves (yet) another specific health-related purpose, which is therefore treated separately. Other leisure activities are often just as much fun, but with less regularity than with a hobby. Despite the many similarities, a distinction can be made between hobby and other forms of leisure activities, based on the pleasure that one enjoys and the regularity with which one does it. One does not have to exclude the other. Children often come into contact with hobbies at school and during extracurricular activities at an early age.
The hobbyist
A hobbyist is usually enthusiastic about the hobby. Many hobbies can be done at home, sometimes a special hobby room is set up for this, often in an attic. Another common aspect in the life of a hobbyist are associations, often described as clubs. Like-minded hobbyists gather here to pursue their hobby, talk about it, gain inspiration and share the passion for the activity. Events are organized regularly for almost every hobby imaginable, often set up by companies that serve the hobby as a market area.
Practicing a hobby can have a calming and therapeutic effect. Personal satisfaction is paramount, what others think of a hobby often has little influence on the continuing enthusiasm of the hobbyist. A hobby can also get out of hand and become a harmful obsession, this is usually the direct result of a (diagnosed or undiagnosed) disorder.
Hobby and profession
Hobbies are driven by personal motivation, not financial ones. For example, a computer programmer can have cooking as a hobby, while a cook has computer programs as a hobby. It is possible that people try to make ‘their hobby their profession’, but in general a hobby costs more money than it yields. Someone who does an activity just for fun is usually called an amateur, a professional is someone who generates a source of income from the same activity.
Activities that do not make easy money are therefore carried out out of hobby. An example of this is the collection of stamps (philately). While postal items can be of great value, it is usually traders who make a profit. However, hobby does not mean that the activity is meaningless, astronomy is an example of a hobby in which amateurs make important contributions; It happens that amateurs are the first to observe an event or new object in the night sky, with their own equipment or by analyzing available source material on the internet. Entomology is also practiced as a hobby by many at a scientific level; public funding for this is often only available for research into pest insects.