s/o how / how much did you move at age 11?

[SKL]

A spin off the 11yo sample food menu thread.

Please describe a typical day in terms of movement, when you were 11yo.

[lovinmyboys]

I did gymnastics about 25 hours a week at 11. I had lots of other movement as well- playing in the neighborhood, swimming, etc. I was homeschooled, but it was kind of school at home so I was expected to sit, but mostly just until lunch time. In the afternoons we went outside and in the evening I went to gymnastics. We also had once a month homeschool roller skating, ice skating, and bowling. 

[bookbard]

Had to walk half a km to the bus stop and back. Then running about at school, games and sport etc. We had a farm so lots of walking about there, we used to bushwalk by ourselves a bit which involved a bit of clambering over rocks. We rode our bikes around the place. We did not do any out of school games or sports or anything. We did have swimming lessons during summer, maybe a week's intensive, and we swam when we went to the beach. I was always last in the school races for everything as I was the smallest, but it did not bother me. 

My kids don't do much either really, just lots of walking and playing and riding bikes. We do try to go swimming once a week (heated pool) and do one other activity such as indoor rock climbing which they like, and they also have Scouts which involves lots of movement games, hiking or biking. 

[prairiewindmomma]

11 was an odd year; we were between farms and living briefly in town.

In the summer, I was let out loose to be feral. At the time my horse was out to pasture at a relative’s, so I’d ride my bike three miles out to go care for my horse (mucking, watering, grooming) and then saddle and ride. I’d usually get looped into working in the garden or in the barn for that relative also, and then I’d bike back. Late afternoons were spent at the pool, which I either biked or walked to. On the lucky days I got a ride to the place where my horse was at, I usually had to help with the cattle but didnt garden. I was bucking 50 lb hay bales and driving tractors at 11, but barely weighed 90 lbs. 

During the school year I had to walk or bike to and from school (over a mile each way), had an hour of seriously vigorous p.e. every other day, but otherwise just had free time after school. I usually rollerskated or biked the town or I would walk to the library. 
 

My town had no parks and rec league, pay to play sports for 11 year olds, or the like. Nearly all of us were from struggling farming families who had no money or time for “such nonsense”. School sports didnt start until 7th grade—basketball and track were the only options until high school, which added cross country and volleyball and tennis. 

[KungFuPanda]

12 minutes ago, SKL said:

A spin off the 11yo sample food menu thread.

Please describe a typical day in terms of movement, when you were 11yo.

Walk to the bus stop, have gym class and three recessed at school, come home, change clothes, play outside til dinner, play outside til bath time. Repeat the next day. 😁 We were energetic, had no cable, and had a very small home. 

[Carrie12345]

Through the summer, most spring and fall weekends, and a few winter weekends, I was moving non-stop. Walking, biking, swimming (or sledding/skating), playground, etc.
On a typical school day, I’d walk about a mile, have recess, gym class 5 days/wk, and probably play outside for a while in good weather.

 

[prairiewindmomma]

Can I just say that my post feels surreal if I were to try to apply it to my own current 11yo? My parents were crazy neglectful.

[73349]

Gym class was 30 minutes once a week, recess every day but I wasn't very active. Jumped rope sometimes in nice weather, or played in the snow. (The first half of being 11, I was in 6th grade; we were the last 6th-graders to be in elementary school in that town, and then the junior high became a middle school. So in the autumn, no recess, but I think gym was every other day.)

I preferred to be reading a book.

Not much has changed!

 

 

Edited January 9 by 73349

[Farrar]

Oh my.

So that would be 6th grade? My mother felt that I should be forced to take gym. She didn't like that it wasn't required. To spite her, I failed the class. Because that's the kind of kid I was. It was so easy too. We were required to bring gym clothes. I just didn't. The tactic worked. I didn't have to take gym again during middle school.

Some days, no physical activity except to walk to the bus stop (probably a quarter mile, maybe a bit less) and back to get to school and walk around the school. So very little.

But many other days, especially in nice weather, I walked a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I walked to the grocery store, multiple bookstores... I probably walked 5-6 miles some days. Always unsupervised, lol.

[Bootsie]

During sixth grade we had two 10 minute recesses and one 20 minute recess during the school day.  Some days we had PE, but not on a regular basis.  About 1/2 of the time I walked home from school, which was just over a mile.  Three days a week I studied ballet for an hour and was a "helper" in my 5-year old sister's ballet class for 45 minutes per week.  I would routinely ride my bike to friends' houses a mile or more away and we we go out and about on our bikes for hours at a time.  

[prairiewindmomma]

Chiming back to add….even when visiting nearby family, rarely would we ever be still.  Everyone had gardens and orchards that needed work, or we cleaned on rainy days. If the house was clean, we either visited other people (made meals for elderly neighbors) or I was taught a new skill. We just were never still.

It has been the greatest joy as an adult to sit on my couch with a quilt and a cup of (decaf) Earl Grey and read a book on a rainy afternoon….and finally not feel guilty for being idle.

[sweet2ndchance]

Walk to the bus stop at the end of our block. PE and recess were outside almost everyday as we don't get much rain in Phoenix. I think I was still in jump rope club then so we jumped rope everyday after school for an hour to an hour and a half. At home and on the weekends and in the summer we were outside riding bikes, rollerskating, jumping rope, hopscotch, 4 square, tetherball, swimming and playing on our swing set. I was never really into organized sports, the closest I came was marching band in high school, but my brother and sister did baseball/softball for many years.

[SKL]

Myself: 

*note - I wouldn't have considered any of this "exercise."  The movement happened because it was the only way to pursue whatever little goals we'd set.  FTR I loathed gym class and didn't participate in any organized sports.  I was a relatively bookish kid and probably on the sedentary side compared to many.

I turned 11 in the 6th grade, 1977.

School year:

• Walked / ran to school in the morning. 
• At school:  walked to change classes 8x/day.  Was allowed to go outside for recess at lunchtime.  Had gym a couple times a week.
• Walked home from school, or wherever else we felt like walking.
• Played outside the majority of the time from 3:30-6pm and from 6:30-8pm (later if the weather was great).
  • The only modes of transportation were walking, bike riding, or "driving" the contraption we kids built out of a wagon and other items.  We'd walk to the playground, stores, friends' houses, the library, etc.
  • I got a skateboard for Christmas that year, so I'd often create an obstacle course in the driveway to practice my skills.  Or I'd whiz down the street doing tricks on my bike.
  • We planted a garden, rescued injured animals, and so on.
  • We always had some "construction project" going on outdoors.
  • The usual kid stuff - tackle football, running races, high jump contests, snowball fights ....
  • Sometimes we'd walk to the one indoor pool a couple miles away, and swim for a couple hours before walking back home.
  • Sometimes I'd do some pro bono work such as mowing the neighbor's lawn with a manual push mower.
• Daily, cleaned the kitchen and helped with our dog and my baby brother.  (More physical house cleaning on the weekend.)
• Homework was maybe a half hour a day max.  We could do this anywhere we wanted, including outside.
• We did watch TV, play piano, and read for fun, mostly when the outside weather was too sucky to enjoy much outside play.  Even with TV and piano, there would be fighting among the siblings over whose turn it was etc., or we'd jump on the couch while singing along to the commercials etc.  😛

Summer:

• All of the above outdoor playing and walking/biking, only it was more like 10-12 hours per day.
• Walked to the zoo, played on the grounds around the zoo, and explored anything green-ish within walking distance.
• Taught ourselves to swim, walked to the pool whenever the weather was OK for swimming.  (There were 3 pools to choose from, but they were all over a mile from home.)
• Participated in the community gardens.
• Participated in the community outdoor kid activities that were provided at the nearest public school playground.
• Occasional camping etc. with our folks.
• Same chores etc. as above, plus helped with bigger projects like cleaning in the attic and basement etc.

Edited January 8 by SKL

[Terabith]

I was pretty sedentary. I swam a lot in the summer (and that was one of the years that I discovered lap swimming and would swim 2000-3000 yards a day), but during the school year, other than daily pe, I didn’t do much. I don’t think that was a year I walked to/ from the bus stop, but maybe it was.  That wasn’t a far walk, but there was a big hill involved. I sometimes walked around my block, but there weren’t really any other kids or anything so not a ton of incentive. 

Edited January 9 by Terabith

[Eos]

Walked to the bus stop, maybe 1/3 of a mile twice a day, gymnastics a night or two a week, played outside constantly.

My sisters and best friend and I made forts, climbed trees, rode bikes every day, did occasional horse riding, played basketball and softball in the yard, swam whenever we could.

At school: PE, recess, my dad coached my softball team that year.

Chores: Gardening, cleaned gutters, fed and cleaned out chickens, helped my mom burn huge burn piles.

When I was ten I put a little note in my neighbors' mailboxes to see if anyone wanted a housekeeper's helper, and an elderly single gentleman took my up on it so at 10 and 11 I did some housekeeping chores for him eg vacuuming, dusting.

[kathyl]

Schooldays, walked to (and from) the bus stop.  Recess at school where we played on the equipment, jumped rope, played games like tag, etc.  It was a huge playground.  

When I got home, I went outside and rode my bike or played basketball in the backyard.  And practiced baton for an hour or so.  Went back inside and did homework, alternating that with my piano practice.  Went back outside if time and did more of the above.

Once a week I rode my bike to my piano teacher's house for a lesson.  That was about a mile away.  I also had a 1-hour baton lesson once a week.

On weekends, did the usual but also had to clean our rooms, and I had to clean the upstairs bathroom.  Also, my father made me wash and vacuum his car every week.  It was also my job to pick up the pinecones and hickory nuts in the yard before my father mowed.  And we all had to rake the gobs of pine straw that fell often.

In the summer, we kids were pretty much on our own.  My mother made it clear that she wanted us outside so she could clean.  We rode bikes, swam, played in the woods, sometimes played group games with neighborhood kids, played basketball, etc.  I also continued to practice baton and piano because my teachers taught during the summer.  And I think I sewed a good bit by then, so I was always alternating activities inside and outside.

Also, we had no AC until I was 12yo, so it was sometimes cooler outside than inside.  That made the outside more appealing, too. 

 

Edited January 8 by kathyl

[chocolate-chip chooky]

What a fun age to think back to!

At 11, I was at the tail end of my intense go-kart racing years, and just starting my intense synchronised swimming years.

I also played netball and softball on my school teams, and spent a lot of spare time up trees.

[bookbard]

14 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

It has been the greatest joy as an adult to sit on my couch with a quilt and a cup of (decaf) Earl Grey and read a book on a rainy afternoon….and finally not feel guilty for being idle.

I'm glad. I love downtime. I definitely spent whole days reading when it was school holidays. 

[Dmmetler]

Walked about a mile each way to/from school (hated the bus with a passion), swim team in the summer, swim twice a week during the school year, plus we had school PE daily until grade 11. 

We also spent a lot of time at the skating rink (air conditioned), could walk to the park and the corner store, my best friend's mom had been a majorette so she taught us baton twirling and we spent a lot of time doing that, and just general stuff. 

[Pam in CT]

Basically I walked and biked a lot **as transportation ** and did very little else.

We lived on a private road the bus didn't come onto, so it was nearly a mile to the stop. My father organized his morning so he could drop me off on his way out, but on the days I took the bus home I walked it. I stayed after school and just... sort of hung out, in the art room or with my homeroom teacher whom I worshipped, at least one day a week and my mom picked my up at ~4:30 after she was done at the other school.

We had gym a couple times a week but I don't remember a great deal of true exercise there.  Outdoor recess every day but again, mostly social.

Somewhere in 6th or 7th grade I started going to the orthodontist once or twice a month -- I'd walk ~1 mile from school and then my mom would pick me up at ~4:30 or 5.

I regularly rode my bike to one friend's house which was probably 3 miles away. Most of that route was on an old train route so no traffic, though it was shoulderless sidewalkless roads on both ends.

I spent EVERY DAY all summer long at the town pool, but again, more lounging about / frolicking doing backflips in the water than real exercise.

My parents really enjoyed hiking/ canoeing / kayaking / cross country skiing, so we did a lot of that sort of thing on the weekends.

At home, my main strategy was to get babysitting gigs during daylight hours in order to avoid my father's propensity to enlist us on yardwork chores.

 

 

[wintermom]

I was very active at that age, mostly outdoors and often with my sister who was 2 years younger than me. We'd play in the backyard and the back alley, throwing softballs, playing soccer, cycling, skipping, walking the fence, doing some basic tumbling on the grass, build snow forts, skate, sled. My siblings and I all participated in competitive swimming and softball. At our cabin (a very basic shack), we'd climb trees, swim, kayak, skate, cross-country ski, sled, snowshoe, play tag with all the kids in the area, and water ski.

I have lots of wonderful memories of all the fun times! I've tried to instill that same love for being outdoors and active with my dc. There was always more emphasis on recreational activities than competitive sports back then for myself, and now for my dc.

[Shelydon]

I had livestock, so I spent 2-3 hours a day doing fairly heavy labor. All day on Saturday/Sunday. 

[Melissa in Australia]

The year I was 11 my mum had twins, number 7&8  she had had number 6 just 12 months earlier.  So she had 3 children in cloth nappies.  She also had 3 foster teens that were coming and going lots. They were somehow related to my step brother.so there was a lot of people in the household.

My job was laundry. I hung up a load and  put a load on before going to school.  Had a shower. I made my own lunch. Helped number 5 girl (aged 3) get dressed and did her hair. Ate breakfast. One of my brother's was porrage maker. Walked just over 1 km to highschool.I was in year 7

School all day. Walk home. Bring in washing  , peg out  a load , fold mountain of washing. Iron clothes. Eat tea, wash or dry dishes. Squeeze in some homework. Get changed ready for church. Help mum get little ones into church clothes. Go to church for 2 hours. Help get little ones into PJs and everyone off to bed.

I was also in charge of cleaning the bathroom but that wasn't every day

I remember laundry was a huge focus. The urgency to get nappies dry so they could be used by all the babies the following day. To this day I need to do laundry every day. To keep on top of it. It is ingrained in me.

The following year mum made a roster for cooking tea, myself and 2 of my brother's having a particular day. And a particular dish. I always made spaghetti, one of my brother's always a roast 

 

 

[EKS]

That was 6th grade.

I would skateboard most days after school or ride my bike all over the neighborhood.  I took the city bus to school, so I had to walk from the stop to school/home.  In the afternoon, I'd frequently get off a few stops early and to go to the shopping area that was about a mile from home.

In school we had two recesses where I would either play football or swing on the swings.  We also had PE every day where we seemed to run around the field endlessly.  

Edited January 8 by EKS

[Pawz4me]

I really can't remember. I think that was in the time range I was morphing from little kid type games (running around in the woods, mostly) into a lot of bike riding. I'm sure I was outside doing a significant amount of something when the weather was decent. And there would have been PE in school. No walking to/from school or to a distant bus stop, it picked up right at our house.

[City Mouse]

I’m impressed with how many people can remember that much detail about daily life at 11yrs old. I can barely remember being 11 much less what I ate or how I exercised.

[Pawz4me]

21 minutes ago, City Mouse said:

I’m impressed with how many people can remember that much detail about daily life at 11yrs old. I can barely remember being 11 much less what I ate or how I exercised.

I don't remember much changing in the way we ate during my entire childhood/teenage years, so that was easy to remember. But remembering how much and what type of movement I was doing in a specific year--that's hard, because it did change a lot.

[Mrs Tiggywinkle Again]

I was homeschooled so that played into it.  I was also a very detailed diarist as I was convinced at the age of 11 that I was destined for amazing things and future generations would want to read my 11-year-old wisdom.

Anyway.

Winter was less, though I was 11 in the blizzard of 1993 and I recorded many, many days after that spent sledding down my grandparents remarkable sledding hill in a homemade tobaggan and snowmobiling. In summer, we had seventeen acres to explore and that year my parents had six children in a double wide trailer, so according to my diaries my mom kicked us out of the house at approximately daybreak and we found our way back indoors around  bedtime. In reality I think we were indoors during the hottest part of the day for about three hours because she had this weird thing with UV rays.  During that time I probably read and wrote in my diaries. I also had 27 penpals that year as all my literary heroines spent a lot of time writing letters. 

We were the original 1000 hours outside children before it was popular. I was also homeschooled, lived very rurally on a lot of acres as did all my grandparents, and had a multitude of siblings to play with, so that contributed. 

Edited January 9 by Mrs Tiggywinkle Again

[*****]

Early 70's for me and the only time I can remember sitting still was right after school or playing a game or crafting with a friend. Grabbing a snack and maybe watching an after school special. Then it was outdoors: riding bikes, walking the woods, flashlight tag, swimming, skating, sledding, etc. We often skated and went sledding in the dark, so even after dinner. It was magical. If we weren't playing, we were cleaning the river,  hunting for turtles or building an ice sail in the winter. None of this was prompted by an adult. We were just an industrious group of kids in the neighborhood and we were never looking for trouble. 

[Annie G]

Turned 11 in 1971, and I was very active. Lived in an apartment complex with a pool and no adult was needed so when weather permitted, we wore our suits all day and were either swimming, roller skating, riding bikes, playing kickball, etc. We did a lot of lizard hunting, fishing in a nearby creek, playing tennis. We were just on the go.

Fall and winter found us less active but still active by today’s standards. I was outside until dusk in fall and winter, and until much later in summer. 
 

There wasn’t anything kid friendly on tv during the day, and staying inside increased the risk that Mom would find chores for me to do. 

[Wheres Toto]

Phy Ed is mandatory in NJ so gym every day of the week, recess every day, I walked to school about 1 mile in 6th grade, just short of 2 miles in 7th grade.  I also played street hockey on roller skates a lot, and just ran around the neighborhood.   Would walk to stores and the library (about 3 miles) all the time.  

[EKS]

54 minutes ago, City Mouse said:

I’m impressed with how many people can remember that much detail about daily life at 11yrs old. 

I can remember this time period specifically because we lived in a different place that year.  My father is a professor and went on sabbatical every seventh year.

[freesia]

I walked a mile to school and a mile home. I walked several blocks to be a mothers helper. We had two recesses—one was 15 minutes of mandatory group game. We had PE twice a week. In the summers I swam swim team— 1 1/2 hour of laps and then 30 min of skill development. 

[MercyA]

Lots of swimming at the public pool in the summer. Plenty of playing outside after school and during vacation. Occasional bicycle riding, roller skating, jump roping.

We had PE in school but I didn't enjoy it at all. 

[Ottakee]

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Can I just say that my post feels surreal if I were to try to apply it to my own current 11yo? My parents were crazy neglectful.

I wouldn’t say that.  Sounds like you were independent and active.   Your description was very typical for farm kids.   My brother was driving a tractor with double hay wagon down the road at 12.   All of us had farm type jobs.

[rebcoola]

11 is probably the least active year of my childhood.  I played soccer  2, 2 hour practices a week.and games on the weekends.  Recess was 30 minutes a day. PE was multiple times a week but I often missed due to gifted program pulloutsm

The school year I didn't get outside much stayed with my dad after-school. Occasionally me and the other teacher kids would go outside but mostly we stole candy and watched videos from the library or I read books alone.

Summer was pretty much non stop activity with even more soccer camps would last all day or roaming around  the neighborhood with friends.

Edited January 9 by rebcoola

[Ali in OR]

To be sure, I have many memories of us watching t.v. after school until dinner. But I was also pretty active:

-Walked to and from school, probably a little over a mile each way.

-Ice skating was my sport. I know I practiced 4 hours at a time (3:00-7:00), but I can't remember how many days a week. I'm guessing 3, maybe 4. But not in summer--too hot to pay the bills to keep ice.

-We belonged to a racquet club. I would bike there (1-2 miles) and then we would play racquet ball or tennis.My sister is only a year younger than me so we did a lot of this together.

-My ice skating friend lived near the racquet club--I would bike to her house too.

-This was about the age my sister and I were allowed to bike by ourselves downtown and go "shopping." We liked the candy store with jelly bellies.

-We had a major week-long backpacking trip in the Sierras every summer. Some days would be 10 miles of hiking.

-And we would just play outside a lot--built forts, climbed trees, played touch football with our brothers, climbed up onto the roof, jumped off, went swimming, biked around the neighborhood, etc.

[Brittany1116]

I was at a performing arts charter/magnet school and danced 90 minutes a day M-F, then had an hour of dance classes after school twice a week. We rode bikes around the property most days, and swam all summer. I was underweight and my thyroid issue was almost dismissed because of my size. I started my period that year. 

Editing here: I think I was 11 when I got rollerblades. I may have been 12. But I was in those til the sun set the year I got the.

We moved 2 years later to a small town with no dance schools. I gained 20 pounds in about 5 months. 

Edited January 9 by Brittany1116

[lmrich]

At 11 -  I  walked to school, home for lunch, back to school, and then back  home. We had 1 1/2 hours for lunch (this was 1981) and often I  would play   outside  for a  part of  it. We had recess daily and  PE twice week. I played   outside in  the  woods  in the spring and falll. Swam and  played softball in  the  summer and rode my bike constantly. In the winter we went sled riding  on the  hill near school  or ice skating on the flooded parking lot at the  pool. 

We moved when I  turned 12 and took a bus or was driven to school. We lived  far from everything and had to  be driven  to the  pool. We did  not have many friends so running around  and riding  bikes were  all but over.  I  did  not gain   weight because I  grew about  5 inches.

[Farrar]

I'm a bit fascinated by how many of you still had recess in middle school. We had a few minutes after lunch rotation where we could walk around on the track, but half the time they just made us stay in the classroom. When I taught middle school, we totally had recess, but that was a small school.

[kathyl]

13 minutes ago, Farrar said:

I'm a bit fascinated by how many of you still had recess in middle school. We had a few minutes after lunch rotation where we could walk around on the track, but half the time they just made us stay in the classroom. When I taught middle school, we totally had recess, but that was a small school.

11yo for us was still 6th grade and grammar school.  We didn't start "junior high" until 7th grade.  Then, our recess disappeared, sadly.  

[Carol in Cal.]

I walked to and from the bus stops to take the public bus a couple miles to school every day, rain or shine.  And we had at least 3 recesses, usually out in the playground unless it was raining, and PE several times per week.  I was not free range as we lived in a city that my parents considered dangerous, but there was a small swing set and a tetherball set in our backyard and so if it wasn’t raining I could usually go outside if I finished my homework before dinner.  I loved to read so I was probably more sedentary than many of my peers, but still pretty active, and it was functional activity mostly.  Not classes.  

My Dad liked to go for a walk after dinner most nights and often took me along.  Sometimes we would visit a couple of old ladies from church or drop in on his brother who lived not far away but mostly we just walked around the neighborhood and then came back home.

In the summer we took swimming lessons or went to VBS.  Sometimes we stayed in my great grandmother’s little house across the bay in a town where I had more freedom, and I would walk or ride my bike to and from the library.

For one or two glorious week we would vacation in the mountains.  That was mostly reading time for me, but every year there was at least one monster hike, led by my dad, that involved miles of mountain trails, and inevitably getting back long after dark, to the terror of my mom.  This was, quite literally, the highlight of the year for me.  I was lucky that our city was hilly so that my legs could stand the mountain ups and downs.

Edited January 9 by Carol in Cal.

[ScoutTN]

Sixth grade. Quarter of a mile walk to the school bus stop. Recess and gym class, which I loved, tomboy that I was. Basketball team in the winter. Loads of playing outside; we lived on a 300+ acre boarding school campus. Biking, horseback riding, a little tennis, gardening. We were far from home and largely unsupervised. 

Summer was more playing outside, lots of swimming, camp, and the beach. 
 

I was a bookworm too, though, and spent many, many hours of my free time reading. 

[J-rap]

I walked back and forth to school every day twice (once for lunch), and it was .4 miles each way.  (Just looked it up!)  Two 10 minute recesses, plus a longer recess at noon that also included lunch.  Recess usually involved playing on the playground, playing 4-square, jump-rope, etc.  Gym time was every day.  Other than that, I usually played outside for an hour or so after school or rode my bike around with my friends.  I was in ballet once/week. 

[Spryte]

11 was a transition year for me, we moved from suburbs to small horse farm. Dream come true, at the time. I was very active.

School day: I literally dragged out of bed at 5:30 to take care of horse chores. Showered, breakfast, and caught a ride to the bus stop. Gym class was misery, but every day. After school I walked home from the bus — long walk as I was riding an alternate bus rather than the one closest to our house, up the side of a mountain. After school was more horse stuff, and riding. Or my mother would pick me up from school and take me to lessons once a week — more riding. There were art lessons in there, too.

Weekends were almost always with friends, many sleepovers, lots of outdoor stuff, hiking, camping, wandering around our touristy area with friends. Not all horse stuff, but lots of it, too. 

My kids played outside a lot, did activities, but were never as active as I was.

[bookbard]

2 hours ago, Farrar said:

I'm a bit fascinated by how many of you still had recess in middle school. We had a few minutes after lunch rotation where we could walk around on the track, but half the time they just made us stay in the classroom. When I taught middle school, we totally had recess, but that was a small school.

In our high school (year 7-12, so from 11.5yrs to 17.5yrs), we had a half hour recess and an hour's lunch each day. This was partly so groups like choir and so forth could meet during the lunch break. 

NB in Australia.

Edited January 9 by bookbard

[katilac]

At 11, I was pretty motivated to walk the half mile to the store to buy candy. 

[rebcoola]

3 hours ago, kathyl said:

11yo for us was still 6th grade and grammar school.  We didn't start "junior high" until 7th grade.  Then, our recess disappeared, sadly.  

This was us to. Though PE became daily and we had school sports than. So I was more active but in a less free way

[Laura Corin]

Per week -

1/4 mile walk to and from the public bus stop. Maybe three hours of sports and PE at school.  Two hours of movement at drama club. One hour of horse riding. Some walking around the city as transportation. Perhaps a one to two hour walk in the big park.

I wasn’t very active.

Edited January 9 by Laura Corin

[Eos]

I'm seeing some metadata here that suggests most of us were active outside and did minimal organized non-school sports.