Esme got to come visit me briefly in the gym at school this week before my students arrived. I showed her some of the relay activities I have the kids do, and let her bounce balls and shoot hoops, and played catch with her with a koosh ball. She loved it! She says she wants to make her playroom into a gym!
Physical Education for Homeschoolers is naturally very different. It's easy to plan a variety of team games for classes of 18 to 25. Esme has and will play team sports through local leagues - she has done two seasons of soccer, swimming lessons, etc. We also try to include lots of physical activities in our weekly lesson plans. A couple weeks ago I bought this book to help give me some ideas, and learn about the different body systems that each activity strengthens. It is written by a man who was both a homeschooler and a gym teacher.
Someone from the local homeschooling message board was kind enough to give us a gently used pair of child-sized cross country skis this past week and Esme got to try them out for the first time last night. She skied down to the mailbox so I could drop the Christmas cards in. It was slow-going at first - she doesn't have poles yet so she fell down quite a bit, but she loved it and got pretty good at it by the time we got back home. She skied all around the yard today while Ethan shoveled our walks. We're looking foward to being able to take her to Mount Tom or some other park with lots of open space so she can ski all around.
