Horseback Riding and School

[UmMusa]

Some of my children will be starting horseback riding lessons in a couple of months as a gift from a relative. It will be an hour per week and will include ground and riding lessons. We're all looking forward to this, as I think we have some horse lovers.

 

The school will open a lesson for us on a weekday morning and we'll make our own class b/c we'll be 3 students. Cool!

 

So, I'm now going to search the forum for all the 'horse' topics, and I wanted to ask any experienced moms how they tied this part of their lives into any official curriculum. Since it will eat up 2 hours of a Friday, how can I ease up my traditional schedule so that we still flow. Like.. should I just do Math and Grammar in the morning then out to the stables? Make sure history gets done other days and consider this a Science day?

 

I'm just curious what y'all think. I want to give it what is deserves as an educational tool, but I don't want to just call it Science and be done with all other Science (not that I was going to do that!).

 

Or should I just consider it a lovely perk to our week and carry on as usual at school?

[regentrude]

My kids have been riding horses since they were ten. DD is leasing a horse and rides 4-5 times per week. We do not incorporate riding into "school" - it is an extracurricular. I do not even count it as PE in high school; it will stand as an extracurricular.

We have certain academic goals for school that we want to accomplish; riding has no bearing on them. It is a wonderful extra.

[fiddle]

Ah, another horse family :) My 2 girls have been doing horseback even before they were homeschooled. We've always scheduled it for late afternoons. For us, it's a big motivator for them to get their work done before they get out to horseback. I consider it mostly an extracurricular activity- however, I do also consider it PE since it is VERY active physically! For kids like yours that are younger, I would try to just adjust your schedule to allow for that time. Plan "school" for 4 1/2 days rather than 5 days. Make sure you have your core subjects covered, then see where you can cut back on some of the others in order to have the horseback time. We had to do this because our kids do a coop every week for one afternoon, so we're in the same boat of having to cover our other material in less time. I think it's about prioritizing, and also realizing that there will be a great benefit to the kids if they enjoy the horseback riding. I know a homeschool mom in our group that now has 3 kids in college and for their entire elementary years they only did school 4 days per week and the 5th day was always a get outside of the house type field trip. When they got to junior high then they did 5 days, but not before.

 

You'll find your groove. Also, if your kids get really into horses like mine are, you can consider tying horses into their 'real" curricululm. For example, you could try Beautiful Feet HIstory of the Horse, or let their free reading/literature be horse-related books (mine are reading Black Beauty right now). Apologia land animals has a section on horses in their science book and there is tons of info on the internet if you WANT to relate horses into your curriculum- either through science or literature or even history.

 

Good luck :)

Paula

[regentrude]

I consider it mostly an extracurricular activity- however, I do also consider it PE since it is VERY active physically!

 

 

I count it as PE until 8th grade - but in high school, something must be reserved that is counted as extracurricular only, because those are important for the college application. That's why I specifically said high school.

[Chrysalis Academy]

We just came back from dd's first riding lesson!

 

As far as tying it in to "school", she started on WP's Equine Science curriculum in the fall, and is now ~1/3 of the way through it. She loves it! I think it's a great tie-in; she gets the "book learning" on horses, learning about anatomy & physiology, behavior, health, history, etc., and she gets the hands-on too! (This is only part of her science, but it's an important part: something she chose, committed to completing independently, and work on her own).

 

I'm "counting" it as P.E., and on lesson days we will probably drop one or two subjects (not the core skill subjects). I guess it could also be her science lab! Hee hee, it's so nice not to be in high school yet!

[Ellie]

How wonderful!!

 

I considered everything my children did as part of their education, so yes, I'd count horseback riding, too, even if I didn't feel compelled to give it an official-sounding course title. I probably would do a 4-day school week with Fridays off rather than trying to do something before or after the lesson. Actually, it would be a good day for cleaning house when you get home. :-)

[IceFairy]

DD rides. One day a week as Equine Therapy for SPD and since she loves it so much, I got her lessons one day a week at a friends riding stables. She is young, but horses are teaching her so much that pretty much her young life revolves around them. Her favorite store is NOT the toy store, its the Feed and Tack, lol. There is science, PE, math (counting carrots) plus she is being taught to brush them and feed them. The days she rides (Friday/Sunday) are non school days for her because she is wiped out.

[Cindyg]

For me, the horse time is my real life. Everything else is just the other stuff. :)

 

I hope your kids LOVE their horse time!!

[KristenR]

YAY!! My family is also delving into the new territory of horses (new for us, that is) and currently I think of it as PE. I haven't incorporated it into any curriculum per se-- other than my daughter picking up loads of horse books for her daily silent reading. I'll be following this post as I love reading everyone's suggestions. Also, I wrote my first horse post here. Check out some of the neat pictures!

[TrixieB]

I count it as PE. My high school DD usually earns one lesson a month at the place where she volunteers. Earning a lesson is tied to the number of hours she volunteers. If DD were riding more extensively, say weekly or multiple times per week, then I'd count it as extracurricular. But once a month... it's PE. For high school, I consider PE to be lifetime fitness activities (fitness walking, hiking, swimming, ice skating, etc.) and horseback riding fits into that category in my opinion.

 

For elementary/middle school students, I would certainly count horseback riding as PE. I see no need to keep track of any "extracurricular" activities at that age unless you are planning to enroll the child in a competitive admissions high school which requires such activities as part of the application process.