Physical Education for my first grade homeschooler?

Question

I started homeschooling my 7 yr old daughter a few months ago. I know once it is warm outside she will get plenty of exercise, but right now it is cold. I need some ideas for inside exercise or activities. I could only find stuff online that you had to have teams or groups of people. Can anyone help??

Answer 1

I know this is going to sound really stupid, but at that age my little sister absolutely LOVED to play "Can hockey"  in our garage. We used old broom sticks that we fashioned into hockey-type sticks. If you jump on a soda can it becomes flat like a puck. We set up cones on each end of the garage to make goals. Then we ran around hitting the puck and trying to get it into each other's goals! Just proves that you can have so much fun with no money at all. LOL! Well, good luck with your search for a good physical activity. = ) Best of luck!

Edited to add: ALSO, she absolutely loved it when I put on Hannah Montana and we danced around to it for at least a half hour straight! She never got bored of it, and because I was babysitting her, I had to dance around too. Haha! It's one of the best workouts out there, and it gets you really thirsty, so be sure to have glasses of water for the both of you!

Answer 2

Just because you homeschool, the activities need not occur within the home.  Can you go to the mall and walk around?  It is a nice, heated environment.  How about contacting your local rec center and inquiring about using their heated pool?

My children have the Nintendo Wii, and I have started counting some of the time they spend on that as Physical Education.  The Wii Sports requires a lot of physical exertion, especially the Boxing.  I believe they are supposed to be coming out with a Wii Fit as well.

When I was in school, we spent a lot of time learning about activities such as square dancing and bowling.  Perhaps you can learn the basics of bowlling, for instance, and then once a week go bowling.  The learning and actual activity all count.  And speaking of dance, is she in dance?  That IS physical activity.

I hope this helps, and I wish you the best!

Answer 3

I homeschooled my kids until this year.  Simeon says is good.  Simeon says jog in place, or touch your toes, jumping jacks.  I had a belly dancing DVD my kids liked that, they also liked exercise videos, they love it when they think its grown up stuff they are doing.  My son loved it when I had them run around the house.  I hope this helps you some.  And good luck with the homeschooling, its a very hard job.  Buts its great to be spending time with your children.

God Bless

Answer 4

I think you should allow your little girl contact with other children. It seems to sad to imagine her playing on her own all day and having to exercise on her own as well. I strongly disapprove of homeschooling, kids needs to grow up with other kids of their age and to meet other adults as well.

Answer 5

buy one of those kids exercise tapes the ones where they dance.

Answer 6

Well there are things that you can try in your community that can go year-round. Check the yellow pages, or your county's Parks and Recreation website to see if any of these are available to you.

-Indoor swimming

-Indoor basketball

-Indoor vollyball

-Gymnastics

-Fencing*** (My sport of choice!)

-Martial arts

-Dance (Jazz, tap, balet, and so on)

-Yoga

-Bowling

-Boys and Girls Club (usually has lots of indoor play activities)

-Indoor rollerskating

-Ice skating

-Ice dancing

IHere are a few others that you can try outside if the weather permits it.

-Skiing

-Snow tubing

-Snow boarding

-Ice skating

-Snow shoeing

If you don't want to join a class or a team in the community or go anywhere special, there are a number of things that you can do in your own home to promote physical activity.

-Play with a soft inflatable ball in the garage or in an open space. Play catch, dodge it, soccer, or whatever comes to mind.

-Get a bag of balloons and have her blow one up and see how long she can keep it from touching the ground. If she seems to be keeping it up with ease, throw in another balloon. Lots of giggles!

-See if you can learn some simple stretches or Yoga positions and practice them together a little each day.

-Rent kids dance or exercise videos

-Get a game that requires lots of movement. Bella Dancerella, Cranium Hullabaloo, Playstation iToy or other video games where you control the game by moving and jumping around, Dance Dance Revolution, etc.

-If you have room in your garage, playing with a small jump rope or a skip-it can be a fun way to exercise.

-Make up a scavenger hunt that will have her scurrying all over the house looking for clues. Let the prize be a toy to use outside when the weather is warmer, or maybe a healthy treat.

-As a mom, you know how physically demanding household chores can be. Have a "help mommy" day where your daughter gets to help you with household tasks. Make it fun by seeing who can fold a basket full of towels the fastest, or have a stacking contest with canned and boxed foods to see how big of a tower you can make before putting away groceries. Be creative.

-Dress warm one day and go on a nature walk. Bring a sketch book or a camera and see if you can find any interesting winter plants or animals to draw or photograph while you walk.

-Take white masking tape and make a hop scotch game on the floor. (it peals right off of carpet, and will come off of hard floors easily if you fold one end of each piece into a pull tab). Use a small bean bag, sponge, or even just a plastic baggie or balloon filled with rice as a marker and play hop scotch!

-Make three bean bags out of the balloons and rice and see how long it takes to learn to juggle.

-Play simon says

-Play red light green light

-Play hide and seek

-Build a fort in the livingroom

-Make, decorate, and play with an indoor frisbee by gluing two paper or plastic plates together. Experiment with different models.

-Set up an indoor obsticle course with simple obsticles. Some ideas would be putting pillows, squares of tape, or plates on the floor and having to hop from one to the next, tying a rope between two chairs and having to either jump over or crawl under it, making a blanket tunnel with chairs and a sheet to crawl through...

-Let her help in the kitchen. Physical education isn't all about exercising. Learn about the food pyramid and teach her how to choose healthy foods over unhealthy foods. Teach her what her body needs and what foods will meet these needs, and learn how to make some yummy healthy snacks together.

-Another part of physical education is learning about our bodies, what they need, and how they work. Teach her about how certain parts of her body work (heart, stomach, lungs, eyes, ears, etc) and what they need to stay clean and healthy and working right.

-Talk about how rest as well as exercise keeps you healthy. Teach her why her body gets tired and needs a certain ammount of sleep. Have her keep a sleep chart for a week writing how many hours of sleep she got each night (good lesson for telling time as well), and if she felt tired or awake in the morning. See if she notices any patterns in her sleep chart.

-Play indoor basketball. Get a soft beach ball, or make a ball out of crumpled up newspaper wrapped in tape. Use a laundry basket or pail as a hoop. Play Around the World and award more points each time she scores a basket from a more challenging spot.

-Play the above game, only get a chore done at the same time by tossing dirty laundry into the hamper, or into the washing machine. Or by tossing the clean laundry from the dryer into the laundry basket.

-Blow bubbles. Make bubble blowers out of straws and string, clothes hangers, paper clips, or just buy bubbles at a dollar store. As she blows bubbles, let her see if she can catch them in a wet hand or pop them with her fingers. Great activity to do if you're about to clean the kitchen floor!

-Play Twister!

-Play Limbo! You can do this with a broom stick, a rope, or even just a strip of toilet paper! If you can't play too then just tie the rope/TP or prop the stick up between two chairs and let her play. Play music in the background.

-Do simple exercises like jumping jacks, running in place, stretching, sit-ups, push-ups, lunges, etc. Do these in sets of ten to some fun music.

-Practice jumprope moves. There are tons of ways to play with a jump rope. I used to be on a jump rope team (basically did dance routines, only while jumproping.) Look up some moves and let her learn them without a rope. When the weather warms up, go out and start practicing with a rope.

Just be creative! There are endless possibilities out there. When in doubt, just follow your daughter's interests.

Answer 7

try taking your daughter on mini-excursions to places like the gym or an ice skating rink. You could also try aerobics videos or putting paper plates around in your house and having your daughter jump from plate to plate around the house and mixing up the plates once she jumps off them.