physical education?

[nertsmommy]

Does anyone have a specific plan for this? I was just planning on giving the kids lots of time to play outside. Is that good enough or do I need to add planned activities? I do plan on adding a health and fitness class starting around what would be 2nd grade age.

[Slipper]

Typically, I let her run around and play outside. She also takes extra activities like theater (lots of dancing) and soccer. I've thought about keeping track of how many toe-touches, sit ups, etc she can do and show they increase over time. That's about it for us. :)

[In2why]

We use youth sports for physical education, actual cooking and gardening for nutrition, and we just finished up a first aid unit, that we will repeat in high school.

[maizeydaizey]

We include play time outdoors (bikes, scooters, running, climbing, etc), park play, hiking, swim lessons, free swim time, soccer during soccer season, bouncy house activities, roller skating, etc. But, I also have a set of cards I created that include various physical activities that are included in her workboxes each day - some I randomly pull and some are planned.

 

I would really like to find some better group experiences for her with HS friends like kick ball, basketball, etc... The few our group has had we've been unable to attend.

[twinmami01]

I really intend to make this a priority, but I'm having a hard time making it fit in our school day. You may want to check out Family Time Fitness' Homeschool PE program:

 

http://familytimefitness.com/fitness4homeschool/Fitness4HomeSchool.php

[frugalmama]

Next year we plan to go to the local homeschool PE the city parks & rec dept does weekly. Then I don't have to worry about it!

[A.Balaban]

Our local YMCA offers a homeschool gym class for very long cheap. We may try something like that.

[mindygz]

I feel like I am a royal failure at this during the cold months, and am really trying to work out a new solution. I did just stumble across this website that has some fun ideas: http://www.shapeup.org/publications/99.tips.for.family.fitness.fun/

 

I like the idea of having cards that we rotate through with different activities. That PE Central Challenge website looks really good, too.

[cagirlintexas]

We do a once a week gymnastics class and swim lessons. I also take my son out to ride his bike and lots of time at the parks when its cool. Other then that we currently aren't doing much although I was watching my son in gymnastics and he is pretty uncoordinated. Made me wonder if I should be doing more to help him with his coordination.

[threedogfarm]

In the winter we ski at least three times/week. In the spring and fall the kids take springboard diving lessons. In the fall, spring and summer my daughter rides horses and my son does all kinds of boy things. I do try to do a couple of recreation dept things per year as well if there is something the kids are interested.

 

My philosophy about phys ed (and it's easy for me to say this b/c we don't have to do anything formally) is that it is just part of our lives. My kids aren't interested in organized sports so diving is more for the social involvement and the same goes for the rec dept activities (like archery, etc.). We want our kids to enjoy going outside and being physically active without too formal of a component. This way it is a natural part of their lives--for the long term. And I like to think that it is working. . .

[nertsmommy]

Thank you for the links. I'm going to check them out. I think I will keep it mainly playing outside and just have planned stuff ready for when we can't go outside. They are getting scooters for Easter instead of candy so I know they'll want to spend most of their time on those.

I have found that my DS gets into more trouble when we can't get outside to play as often as I'd like. I guess boys just really need that physical activity!

[lorisuewho]

Our local YMCA offers and Gym and Swim class (2 hours, 1 x a week) for homeschoolers.

[AStableBeginning]

My girls are competitive gymnasts (Lv 5's) and competitive cheerleadig, I use their activities for PE credits. My gymnasts practice 19+ hours a week.

[petepie2]

My DC play soccer in the fall and spring and basketball in the winter. We used to do the Gym&Swim class at the YMCA, but we are taking a break at the moment due to the difficulty of keeping my toddler entertained and out of trouble throughout the class. Hopefully next year we'll be able to start back.

[nertsmommy]

I wish we had stuff for homeschool families around here. I do try to plan a lot of fun activities for the family to do and we visit friends and family as well. But I'd really like for them to know other kids that are homeschooled and I'd love to connect with other parents as well.

[lorisuewho]

I wish we had stuff for homeschool families around here. I do try to plan a lot of fun activities for the family to do and we visit friends and family as well. But I'd really like for them to know other kids that are homeschooled and I'd love to connect with other parents as well.

 

Is there a homeschool group in your area of PA? I'm in central PA and Harrisburg has a very active homeschool community.

[momtoamiracle]

no, I don't. My boy is very active so he's always on his bike, playing on the swing, running, playing ball. He also helps his daddy in the yard a lot. If he was the type of kid to sit around watching tv I would worry about it but since he is the outdoorsy type I don't.

[wintermom]

When my children were very young, I didn't do much organized physical activity classes. We did a lot of backyard play, park play, hiking, biking and swimming. I would try to bike, run or play alongside my children rather than simply send them outside to exercise.

 

As my children have gotten older, we've participated in more activities which cover physical fitness as well as social interaction with friends. We do organized swimming, Taekwon-do, basketball and soccer. We also skate and ski once or twice a week in the winter, bike, hike and swim in the spring and summer.

 

Myself and my dh both have degrees in Physical Education and know the value of starting healthy fitness habits early in life. Exposure to a variety of activities and teaching basic skills such as kicking, throwing and catching are important. It's also important for parents to stay fit and active both to stay healthy themselves and be positive role models for their children. My main goal with my children is not to raise up competitive athletes, rather individuals who have tried a variety of physical activities, and are coordinated in a variety of physical skills, so they can choose one or more physical activities to pursue for a lifetime.

[ErinE]

Exposure to a variety of activities and teaching basic skills such as kicking, throwing and catching are important. It's also important for parents to stay fit and active both to stay healthy themselves and be positive role models for their children. My main goal with my children is not to raise up competitive athletes, rather individuals who have tried a variety of physical activities, and are coordinated in a variety of physical skills, so they can choose one or more physical activities to pursue for a lifetime.

 

This is perfect. My kids do Tae Kwon Do and seasonal competitive sports, but we try to model good physical fitness by being active ourselves and making sure the family spends lots of time outdoors.

[Twigs]

You might check out the President's Challenge

[Mommy22alyns]

I get them outside as much as possible. They do gymnastics year-round (Sylvia 1x/week, Rebecca 2x). They used to play soccer in the spring (no session this year though). They've also done a session of tennis. When they go up to Grandma's they ride bikes and scooters and roller-skate all the time. Oh, and their co-op has PE.

[NanceXToo]

My 11 y/o daughter takes weekly judo classes. She participates in a spring and fall Homeschool bowling league. She takes swim lessons in the summer.

 

My 6 y/o son also does the bowling league and swim lessons. He plays teeball in the summer and soccer in the fall.

 

We go on family walks together, and other than that the kids play and run around and go to the park and ride their bikes and scooters and so on.

[Hunter]

With a child that prefers reading above playing outside I (plan to) use

 

PE Challenge (see signature) and afterthat:

Family Fitness.

 

But that's just our choice to balance things out...

 

Thanks for this link http://www.pecchallenge.org/challenges/challengelist.html. It's a really good one.

 

When my boys were young, we would have a sport of the month. We would get books from the library. Nowadays there are free videos at youtube and brain pop. We would learn the game rules and practice drills.

 

We also tried to have an ongoing schedule like the activities at the link above. Something that we could measure progress with, and with clear cut goals.

 

I think PE as a subject is quite important. Currclick has some type of cheap copy work pages for the most popular sports and note booking pages by several authors. Nowadays it is effortless to plan a mini sport unit study each month.

[Eriebritaime]

I know this is years later, but I still came upon it and found it helpful. 

For my high schooler, we rotate things like Park Days, Walking, Bike Riding, Body Weight Exercises at home, and an actual P.E. Class once per week. He gets outside as much as possible on the good weather days. He also likes swimming and hiking but those aren't scheduled at the moment. I definitely have to remind him because it can be the first thing to get forgotten amongst the workload, and keeping an eye on the weather really helps him. he now thinks about if he wants to get out before it rains or gets hot, etc. 

For my early elementary girls, they take a Swim Class, a P.E. Class, attend park days, and generally play outdoors daily either in our back yard or out front with the neighbor kids. If the weather is bad, we have some indoor things like stepping stones, a balance board, a gym quality play mat, etc, and they are just as active indoors. 

Edited April 16 by Eriebritaime
I accidentally posted before i finished my post.