Laura in China (or others)... PE ?

[Alice]

Laura-

I've seen you write about having a strong emphasis on PE. How do you do that? Is it just scheduling in physical activities or do you have a specific program you use. I was PE-challenged :) in school so feel inadequate about this part of teaching, other than doing walks and bike rides, etc. That may be enough...I'm just curious about what else people do.

Thanks-
Alice

[Beth in Central TX]

I'm not comparing our homeschool PE standards to Laura in China by any means. But with a houseful of boys, I had to develop a routine release of their energy. So we started following the guidelines set up in the Presidential Challenge: http://www.presidentschallenge.org/educators/home_schools.aspx

DH keeps track of their progress, and the boys really like the competitiveness of out-doing each other and the age-related averages. My 5-year old can do as many sit-ups in a minute as my 10-year old. It's really funny to watch them.

[Laura Corin]

My starting point is just one hour of red-in-the-face exercise a day (per the recommendations for kids of the UK heart association). Beyond that, I make sure that there is a balance between lower and upper body, with strength, aerobics and stretching.

Recently, the boys have been crazy about rollerblading. It certainly meets the red-in-the-face test (especially while they have been learning) but I need to start working on upper body strength with them again.

Best wishes

Laura

[OhElizabeth]

Wow, sounds like I still haven't been doing enough!! :( I got the book Laura in China recommended (Homeschool Family PE??) and have implemented some of the ideas. With an only girl, it's not quite the same as rambunctious boys. She'd rather read than run out and play. If an hour a day of red in the face is the goal, then we have a ways to go yet!! Mercy.

PS. Like my new sig? :)

[mcconnellboys]

We use this as an excuse to schedule outside, group activity. There are a lot of boys in our hs community who join us (to their mothers' relief). What we do varies from month to month and year to year.

We did the President's Physical Fitness challenge, among other things, a couple of years ago. Even at that time, when my younger son was only in second grade, he earned his silver level medal and was working on his gold level. So if your children are active and you keep up with inputting all their physical activity, the time adds up before you know it.

Even scheduling others to come over and exercise with you on a weekly basis can be great fun if you'd like more company (and competition).

This year, we started out doing a round of golf lessons in the fall. We moved into a round of "Terrifit Tuesdays", offering outings at various local places where the kids could have free play indoors, such as a place with a gi-normous tunnel sytem, a gymnastics place, etc. This sort of play enables them to keep up their activity levels during the rainier, colder months. This winter, we've been interspersing bowling dates with a homeschool gym and swim at an area YMCA. We're getting ready to do another round of indoor play dates and will offer golf again in the spring.

I don't know yet what next year will hold. I'm looking into several options for group sports. We do things at home, too, but it's generally been more fun for mine, I've found, with a group of others more their own ages (I have two who are widely spaced in age).

Regena

My younger son is also on a year round swim team and plays soccer fall and spring.

[Laura Corin]

Wow, sounds like I still haven't been doing enough!! :( I got the book Laura in China recommended (Homeschool Family PE??) and have implemented some of the ideas. With an only girl, it's not quite the same as rambunctious boys. She'd rather read than run out and play. If an hour a day of red in the face is the goal, then we have a ways to go yet!!

Calvin would like to spend all day reading in my sunny window seat. He finished four books yesterday. That's why I have to schedule things for him. Until recently, he was doing Taekwondo for three hours a week and tennis two hours. That only left an hour or two that I needed to schedule, so we would usually do running, sit-ups, push-ups, Superman flying, and stretching; or running, light weights and stretching.

This is the link for the heart guidelines for children:

British Heart Foundation (http://www.bhf.org.uk/keeping_your_heart_healthy/healthy_children/how_to_keep_children_healthy.aspx)

PS. Like my new sig? :)

Are congratulations in order? When are you due? I can imagine that running around doing PE might not be at the top of your list right now.

Laura

[Tina]

Speaking of group things, in the late spring (we're up NORTH here!) I schedule tennis lessons/time twice a week for a month for the teens. Another mom follows up with weekly softball in the summer, and a couple other moms play goalie while the kids play hockey for a couple hours every week. Just some ideas...

[OhElizabeth]

Yup, due in September, and you're right, I DON'T feel like running around for PE, lol. Right now I'm trying to keep from being irritable and just make sure the basics get done! Somehow I managed to do an hour of paper plate folding (totally cool) and an hour of spelling on the computer but forgot math till almost supper. Oh well. But your post is making me realize I do need to do more. We used to ice skate every day, and I pulled back when I started at Curves. Now I'm not allowed to ice skate (maybe ok for some prego chicks but I was told not to and I'm being compliant), so I'm less motivated to take her. She's been swimming twice a week, but she's such a novice that it's a very low-key thing. One hour of red-face a day is something I can quantify, makes sense to me. Thanks for sharing! :)

[mom2abcd]

Wow, sounds like I still haven't been doing enough!! :( I got the book Laura in China recommended (Homeschool Family PE??) and have implemented some of the ideas. With an only girl, it's not quite the same as rambunctious boys. She'd rather read than run out and play. If an hour a day of red in the face is the goal, then we have a ways to go yet!! Mercy.

PS. Like my new sig? :)

OhElizabeth, I love your new sig! Congratulations and God's blessings to all four of you!

[Lorna]

We find going for a swim is quite easy to do as home-schoolers. We walk two miles to the pool, swim for a hour or so, and then walk back (picking up tea on the way home). I have timed it and we often take three and a half hours to do all this. We go twice or three times a week. It is good for us because the pool is generally quiet at the times we go.
We also take them ice-skating at the weekend (although this is a seasonal occupation).
I was really not sporty at all at school (always last to be picked for teams). I do enjoy swimming however and I am very proud that my children enjoy sports because I was very careful not to be pushy with them. They were afraid of water as babies and I respected that. With gentle encouragement as little ones they now love the water. They wouldn't win many competitions but I hope that they will want to swim for their whole lives. Both my sisters were very competitive swimmers but they have no motivation to swim as adults. My aim is to find the children sports they can for life, without the need to find a club or expensive specialist equipment.
Yoga is another sport the children enjoy which I have seen benefit my mother-in-law and other elderly relatives. This gives them the confidence to remain active in their later years (reduce fear of falling and increasing suppleness).
Sport should be a skill for life in my opinion and not so much about childhood certifcates and winning or losing.

[Laura Corin]

My abiding memory of sports (mostly hockey) was being cold, embarrassed and in pain. So my aims are similar to yours.

When we are in Hong Kong we swim a lot. Here in China, the pools are not an attractive prospect. There's a clean but unheated hotel pool (Calvin has almost no flesh on his bones and turns blue in five minutes) are a hot-spring-fed but very grotty pool. I take them to the latter for lessons a few months a year, but it's really not appetising.

Laura

[Elinor Everywhere]

My aim is to find the children sports they can for life, without the need to find a club or expensive specialist equipment.

Sport should be a skill for life in my opinion and not so much about childhood certifcates and winning or losing.

I strongly agree with this; it is one reason we chose not to follow the typical path of soccer, baseball, etc. We like to participate in exercise and sports together, and I also want them to grow up being able to exercise (and play a sport) for fun and health. As a family we sail (competitively and also just for fun), play tennis, and swim when we are home (backyard pool). The kids & I also walk, hike, and bike.

These are all things the kids can do until they're 80--well, 90 in fact, as my dh's tennis-playing uncle is currently demonstrating. ;)

[Lorna]

When we are in Hong Kong we swim a lot. Here in China, the pools are not an attractive prospect. There's a clean but unheated hotel pool (Calvin has almost no flesh on his bones and turns blue in five minutes) are a hot-spring-fed but very grotty pool. I take them to the latter for lessons a few months a year, but it's really not appetising.

Laura

Yes, our local pool when the children were very little was very cold. The poor little things turned blue in the water and simply clung onto me. We laso went to pools later on where they were still very cold and they were unable to stand on the bottom. I really felt I was putting them off by taking them. A good swimming pool is essential and rarely available, sadly.

[Alice]

Thanks so much for all the ideas. I especially like the Presidential Fitness Challenge idea for when my guys are older.

[Chris in SC]

I tried to use a program but find that we have too much to schedule. Lately I have been kicking them out of the house for an hour. Soon they will be swimming twice a week with the local swim team.