Middle School Physical Education for Homeschoolers
Physical Education: It’s not just for public school
It’s 8am, which means it’s time for physical education class. My homeschoolers @aurynthenorse and @cassidydawn are off to run their laps around our little homestead forest before they return to do their workout. Maybe it’s a ¼ mile, or maybe it’s ½ mile this morning. I will find out soon enough.
Why yes I am typing, not running laps, thanks for noticing!
Physical education is not a class that I teach the kids but it is one that I require for my 7th and 8th graders. While I am in pretty good shape in general, I am the same person who avoided gym class, never did the first pull-up, has never done a cartwheel, and has a permanently damaged rotator cuff in my shoulder. I want physically fit kids who turn into healthy, fit adults - not limp noodles like we tried to be!! I recognize that teaching the children how to know their body and how to control it is vital to mind-body-spirit. While they hate it now (yep even homeschool kids hate p.e.) I truly believe it’s already giving them an edge and in the long run they will be able to achieve much more with their knowledge as well as their physical prowess than if we just “stayed in shape”. This is where my best job as a home educator is to enlist someone who has expertise and time to donate to the cause, because while I understand that, I would be a hypocrite at best and hurting them at worst if I just tried to do it myself.
Enter my wonderful partner in this colorful household we have created to the story! He’s 28, in great shape, and spent several years in high school extremely focused on wrestling and football. Hours per day were spent working out, obsessing over weight gain or loss, and building stamina. What the kids do for a workout now, he did for late night before bed. He makes sure they are doing the exercises correctly and gives “motivation” when it’s needed. It’s not like all those coaches on tv in the 80’s yelling in your face, but he and the kids definitely get loud sometimes!
PE class is every day, generally (well, school days, M-F). It’s the first activity of the day, and it starts at 8am. Breakfast is made and consumed after, and then all the rest of the school day happens beginning around 9:30. This is because I believe that all the physical activity and blood pumping gets the brain working, too!
The laps are actually a new addition from the past couple of weeks. Now that the little trail around “the back 40” is cleared out pretty well, it’s the first part of the routine. Our resident sustainable knowledge encyclopedia is known as “Coach” and has jumped on board helping with pe class. Coach gets them first and has fun adding laps for things like forgetting your water, or being late, or being a bit snarky with the words coming out of your mouth. The kids are also getting a crash course in something unfamiliar: one person can get the other person laps too, so they better work to help each other! The goal is to have them comfortably running a mile each day.
It’s 8:14 now and the kids will be back inside any minute from the laps. Then comes the real deal workout. There are 5 rounds to complete. When they are on their game, it’s done in less than 25 minutes. This is their second school year using this routine and from a teacher standpoint, it’s a good routine for middle school.
Please forgive me now for not using all correct technical terms…
First are the stretches:
neck rolls, each arm across chest, each arm behind head, small/big arm circles, windmills, each leg behind the back, toe touches, and lunges.
The rounds are as follows:
Round 1 – 20 sit-ups, 10 push-ups, 20 squats, 6 pull-ups.
Round 2 - 20 leg raises, 10 push-ups, 20 squats, 6 pull-ups.
Round 3 - 20 airplanes on one side, 10 push-ups, 20 squats, 6 pull-ups
Round 4 - 20 airplanes on the other side, 10 push-ups, 20 squats, 6 pull-ups
Round 5 - 10 push-ups, 20 squats, 6 pull-ups, 20 hyper-extensions
I must say, all the complaints and grumbles and everything else that comes with steemagers is worth its’ weight in gold when I see the shape the kids are in. Holding the big picture sometimes makes it a little easier to deal with the fun parent/teacher dynamic that comes with homeschooling!
P.S. Bonus points to the kiddos for listening to music during workouts that is largely 1980's rock, causing instant triggers back to my own time in gym class (and all the reasons we left the '80s music behind us)!
80's rock rules for P.E. class FYI (other 80's music is great too).
That's not what you say when your brother @aurynthenorse plays meatloaf, @cassidydawn - we both run away! When I was growing up in the '80s I loved music from the '60s so I completely understand, but it is kind of funny being on the other end of the generation gap. Don't worry, I will still sing along with you on some of the better ones from time to time!
Meatloaf does not count! I did not say all 80's music, it is mainly just rock and sing alongs.
Love that they have a "coach" to motivate them. Even adults need help motivating and it's much more fun when you have that! I have, at times, jogged additions the bock with my girls in the mornings, but it didn't last. They both did gymnastics and my youngest still does, so they're pretty fit.
@homeedders I agree! We have all 4 children in karate class and we do a lot of outdoor activities, so in general we are all in pretty good shape. I am loving seeing the definition both of them are developing. The "hyper extensions" are where someone holds their feet while they are laying on their stomachs, and then they bend up and back. Those are particularly important to keep the back muscles in shape, and I have been amazed to see the definition on those as well.
Congratulations @freemotherearth! You have completed the following achievement on the Steem blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s) :
You can view your badges on your Steem Board and compare to others on the Steem Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPTo support your work, I also upvoted your post!
Do not miss the last post from @steemitboard:
Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness to get one more award and increased upvotes!
Suppose doing classes at home is one way to go about that, I just chucked mine in sports XD (also doubled as more socialisation at the time as our homeschool groups were starting to fragment)
This post was shared in the Curation Collective Discord community for curators, and upvoted and resteemed by the @c-squared community account after manual review.
@c-squared runs a community witness. Please consider using one of your witness votes on us here
Getting fit! Awesome! I loved gym class and playing dodge ball!
Posted using Partiko iOS
I really enjoyed reading your post! Thank you for sharing and giving us some ideas on physical fitness for the kids.
I’ve been homeschooling since our nine year old was two. We haven’t gotten our kids into physical sports or activities yet but they love playing outside with friends and running around. I do however want them to get in better shape. We have five kiddos and the youngest is one. We are currently looking for a family karate/self defense class for us all to take part in and I think that would be a good start as far as outside activities. But I do want to implement more at home activities before we actually began our seat work.
That’s pretty neat that you have someone with experience that can guide your children and make sure they are doing the exercises correctly. Thanks again for this post it was motivating and welcome to Steemit :)
Congratulations Mama! This post has been selected to be featured for the @steemitmamas Sunday Shares Curation Post!
To view your post along with other great selections please visit: Steemitmamas Sunday Shares #8 - Easy Reads For Your Weekend.