Do you do a scheduled PE? Recommendations?

[ExcitedMama]

For RSO Life there was an activity involving a series of exercises and DS could absolutely not do a sit up. Is that something a 7 year old should be able to do? DH thinks so. If so we need to work on his core strength. His exercise is just playing outside, we have a playset and he loves to race his best time from a set course. He's never wanted to do anything involving a ball and he goes through periods where he wants to get on his bike or scooter. We have a rowing machine that he does like to use for a few minutes. He did about a year of martial arts before he quit, and that was making him finish out the contract period we had signed up for. He's never wanted to do any organized sports. I've seen Family Time Fitness recommended, anything else I should look at? I don't understand from their website how FTF works. Is it a set schedule? Or just pick a video? Is it worth it?

[Arcadia]

When my boys were younger, we did boys gym regularly. That was the easiest way for my husband and I to make sure our boys have some form of PE. We chose gym because my older boy wasn't interested in year round swimming and gym was the best all round toning that we could think of.

 

As for sit ups, it was part of my country's annual physical fitness exam for 1st to 12th graders. So we have sit ups practice during PE which was twice a week from 1st to 12th grade. What helped me do a sit up in 1st grade easily was ballet lessons when I was 5 years old. I agree in working on the core strength as that helps for other things like not slouching in the chair when doing book work. Link list other benefits http://www.health.harvard.edu/healthbeat/the-real-world-benefits-of-strengthening-your-core

 

Page 3 of link has exercise suggestions for core strength. I remembered I did lots of wheelbarrow walks for school PE.

https://usagym.org/pages/home/publications/technique/2010/05/06_core.pdf

Edited May 19, 2017 by Arcadia

[Clemsondana]

I would expect a 7yo to be able to do sit-ups - we did them in school, and my karate kid does them in class. My son is a scout, and at different levels of cub and boy scout there are fitness exercises. It doesn't set a goal of how many of each that you should be able to do, but there is a list of exercises to try, practice for a few weeks, and note your improvement. Since boy scouts aren't about hard-core physical training for athletics, it might give you an idea of the kids of things that 'average' boys can do for exercise.

[bensonduck]

Would he enjoy kids' yoga? There are tons available for free on YouTube. My kids (8, 5 and 2) really like the Star Wars ones. It's fun and not "exercise" exercise if you know what I mean. It's a treat for my kids.

[MerryAtHope]

Does your local Y do anything? Ours has a homeschool PE that meets once a week for 1.5 hours. The kids do calisthenics (so they get practice with things like sit-ups, squats etc...), group games and activities, and then swimming. That's been fun for my kids. Sometimes I did exercises like that at home on off days (and also things like wheel barrows, or you can set up an obstacle course of things to army crawl under, go through, jump over etc... and see if they can beat their time), or had them run, ride bikes, scooter, jump rope, go on walks together, trampoline at a friend's house, etc... Rowing machine sounds great! We also did various classes at times--swim lessons, tennis, T-ball, boating in the summers...

 

 

[UCF612]

We do weekly P.E. at the YMCA. My oldest is a competitive swimmer who trains 1.5 hours a day. My youngest is on the recreational swim team and plays soccer. We do 5k races as a family. In the winter they both play basketball. I consider all of that P.E.

 

A few cities around us offer P.E. classes as well. And their is a program called Saints coming to us next year. Anything like that around?

Edited May 19, 2017 by UCF612

[Mom27kidz]

we put all our younger boys into recreational gymnastics. That's a super work out for them. Lol. Then we also put them into swimming lessons. It doesn't have to be PE curriculum... can be just fun stuf offered by your local community.

[chaik76]

We did not. I considered not having to do scheduled PE one of the perks of homeschooling. I honestly have no idea if my kids can do sit ups. I'm sure if they wanted to learn, they could.

 

[fralala]

My kids' exercise is just playing outside (and inside), too, as well as going for walks and bike rides-- given that they are sedentary for such a small portion of each day, I don't really think we need formal PE. I will say however that I think they'd love it, given that when I get out my dumbbells and exercise band, everybody seems to want to join in.

 

I think my 7 year old could do a sit-up, but they're not really my favorite exercise to test functional core strength personally (or to strengthen them). Being able to do a sit-up also requires help from the hips and thighs. Can he do a crunch? Can he hold a plank?

 

Swimming is great for developing the core, as mentioned, as are gymnastics-- does your playset have rings or a bar/bars? Going across the monkey bars and just hanging and swinging your legs/lifting them should strengthen that area. I like the idea of wheelbarrows too. My 7 year old loves doing headstands, which work on balance and core strength, and cartwheels.

[bluejay]

Well, DH is a vet.  PE begins when Daddy tells the kids to get "on the double" in the morning. :D  Then there's our backyard that always needs work.  LOL  Pretty much an all day thing when the weather is right.  It ensures the kids nap and the PE slot is filled.

[....]

We do a homeschool PE class at a rec center.  The best activity I ever signed the kids up for!  They play a sport for the first half of the class.  It rotates through different sports: flag football, dodgeball, soccer, etc.  The second half of the class is running around an indoor track, relays, push-ups, sit-ups, stretches.  

 

For 8 years of homeschooling, we didn't do an organized PE class (so this past year was our first).  This year was so much fun.  We plan to do this every year.

[Soror]

I would expect a typical kid to be able to do a sit-up at 7.

 

I do PE with the kids, we've done programs together(Gold Medal Body Floor and Integral Strength)  and sometimes stuff I make up. We do callisthenics (push-ups, pull-ups, squats, etc), walking, biking, a bit of running and various other things. I'm also a children's yoga teacher so we do some yoga as well. We aim for walks/biking several times a week/daily when we can manage it and strength activities a few times a week. 

 

Working with kids I've noticed there is a distinct lack of core strength in many, so your son is in good company. When I do classes we work on core mostly with games one of the favorites is "toe-ga", we sit in a circle and pass a ball around with our feet, to start with they can use their hands behind them but as they get stronger they can challenge themselves to see if they can do it without hands. The kids that are really weak end up lying on their back. We also do a couple of games where we crawl on our bellies. Practicing pull-ups and handstands(against the wall) also work the core as well, my kids love practicing handstands and pull-ups too. Planks work core as well but that isn't much fun for a 7yo, instead try plank walks, or have them hold plank from knees if need be and work on lifting one hand at a time and touching the opposite shoulder, we call that ABC push-ups- although it isn't a push-up, so we go through the alphabet hitting the one shoulder then the other. One more that works some core and balance is sand writing, standing you point 1 toe and use that to write letters in front of you- go through half the alphabet with one foot and then do the other half with the other foot. If the whole alphabet is too long they can work on writing their name.

[mom of 2 boys]

We do weekly "gym & swim" at our YMCA. I haven't seen them do sit-ups, but they do play gym games like you would see in an elementary school.

[Insertcreativenamehere]

We do a weekly gym co-op and my kids play sports, so we've got PE covered. They love the gym class; you might find something similar at the Y. 

[Seeking Squirrels]

My kids take a 1hr/week tumbling class. Once every 6-8 weeks or so they have conditioning, so running, pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups and all the rest is what they do the whole class. My girls hate conditioning week! lol They still do those things here and there the other weeks, just as more of a warm-up before tumbling and trampoline work. 

 

They also take a weekly highland dance class. 45 min for the younger, 1 hr for the older. Highland dance keeps you moving! I've tried and I can't get through a whole routine even though I know a couple of them now after DD has been in it for four years. 

 

In the summer we do a few swim sessions but it doesn't really add up to much time. 

 

In the fall and spring my oldest does soccer. Each week they have a 1 hr practice, then a 15-20 min practice before a 1 hr game. 7 weeks in the fall, 7 in the spring. She may not do soccer next year, though. 

 

The co-op we're joining for next year sometimes runs a recess or PE class that my girls will likely want to sign up for. Oldest also has OT every 2 weeks, that usually includes about 20 minutes of that kind of core work. 

 

So we don't necessarily do scheduled "PE", but they are getting regular physical education of some sort. 

[jer2911mom]

We bought a game called Fitivities at convention last year that my kids love.  It's easy to use and gets them doing a lot of different activities.