This week I’ve been getting up early each morning to work on plans for homeschooling, which will begin for the first time for our family in just under a month. One area I’ve been giving some thought to is Physical Education and what I can do to make sure my girls are exercising their bodies and not just their minds.

I’ve made an initial list of what we will be doing for physical education, and of course this list is subject to change after we get into the swing of things and determine what is and isn’t working about the schedule I’ve created (veteran homeschooling parents keep telling me to expect to have to make adjustments so I’m trying to stay flexible!).

1. Swimming

The current plan is to take the girls to our nearest public indoor swimming pool once a week for some fun and a really great all over body workout. I plan to squeeze a few laps in while we are there, too! It will cost $4 total per visit, putting this activity cost at $16/month. I’m not thrilled about the cost, but it’s much cheaper than the $75/month YMCA membership we used to pay, and we pretty much only used the pool.

2. Backyard Games

I’ve got a selection of games that the girls can choose from for daily outdoor time (at least 30 minutes). I have a frisbee, a jump rope, bikes and scooters, and a few really fun games recently sent our way from Toysmith. In particular, my girls already love Bashminton (similar to badminton, but no need to put up a net) and Spring Ring (great fun for keeping a squishy ball in the air, and it can be used in the backyard or in the pool). I also have a kids’ croquet set and I’ll be encouraging the kids to select something from the toy chest, in addition to simply having them chase each other around!

3. Yoga

We are going to be practicing yoga either 3 times a week, or if it proves as beneficial as I suspect it will, every morning. I’ll have some kid-friendly yoga routines you can find for free on YouTube, and we also really love using the Yoga Pretzels cards, because then the kids can simply draw a card with a particular move, and we spend some time working on that move together.

4. Dance

This one is already on the back burner for a semester, due to heeding advice from other homeschooling parents to avoid the temptation to over schedule. I’m already seeing just how easy it will be to have them signed up for too many things, so we are backing off of this commitment for now. But if I find that the interest persists, and if I feel that physical education needs additional attention, then we’ll sign back up for dance. I’ve proposed karate and soccer to my girls to see if I could get them interested in either, but so far, no luck.

If you homeschool and have some thoughts on what helps your kids stay active, I’d love to hear about it in the comments! I’m appreciative of any and all advice! 

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