Physical Education for Homeschoolers
Physical education is a requirement in many states. Fortunately, it’s one of the most specific demands many homeschoolers meet. A little creativity will go a long way to help you find options that will enhance your kid’s physical fitness. Often, this is the goal of PE for many families.
While homeschool PE is often overlooked in the younger grades, it’s still essential and is a prerequisite in some states. As such, you need to incorporate PE lessons into the regular curriculum for your teen.
Some kids will get tons of exercise when allowed to go outside and play. But if you’ve got a child that needs extra stimulation to set things afloat, it may be time to carve out some time in your everyday schedule. Meanwhile, below are some of the things you need to know to plan for homeschool PE.
Planning For Homeschool Physical Education: Essentials You Need To Know
1. State Requirements Deviate
Like any other subject, you’ll want to know the specific requirements for physical education in your state. While PE is only required for high school students in some states, there are no restrictions on homeschooling.
As a parent, you’ll want to set your homeschool standards to exceed the state’s obligations. If you’re fortunate to have an active kid in sports, you may not need to sacrifice much time for PE. And because many kids lose focus as they move into teenagehood, PE will go a long way to encourage more exercise.
2. Team Sports Matter
If your child actively participates in team sports, homeschool PE will be a no brainer. Team sports could be anything from baseball to soccer. Encouraging your kid to participate in team sports will always go a long way to enhance homeschool PE.
3. Set a Goal
Goals are meant to motivate each milestone in life. As such, you need to set a plan that will encourage and inspire your kids to reach for the stars. Do not put so much pressure; instead, encourage your teen to work towards achieving a specific PE milestone. For example:
- You can enroll your teen for a charity race to enhance their overall activity. A good example is a Couch to 5K. This program is meant for the less active teens who would love to adjust to everyday exercise.
- Your child could also participate in hikes and mountain climbing as a way of planning for homeschool PE.
- Finally, you can register your teen in a Youth Fitness Award Program to create a goal setting for exercise as well as nutrition.
4. Exploration
Physical education curricula do not have a specific focus, so it’s okay to encourage your child to explore various activities and combine them as a single PE course. Some famous examples for the homeschoolers include gymnastics, weight lifting, hiking, sailing, swimming, yoga, soccer, arts, running, surfing, skating, skiing, rollers, cross-country, among other recreational activities.
5. Health Education
Physical education is often an excellent opportunity to explore health concepts with your kids while homeschooling. Such topics include nutrition, first aid, substance abuse, sexuality, and stress management. Your teen will probably shy away from such discussions, and that’s fine as long as they understand what it takes to lead a healthy life.
6. Incorporate Technology
As a parent, you know some of the things that inspire your kid. If your child is more into technology than physical education, consider adding technology as part of PE. Some kids are inspired by fitness videos online. Others are motivated by the many apps for enhancing activity levels. Whichever way that’s comfortable to your teen, make sure to include it in their physical education so that they are encouraged to work even more.
Physical Education At Home
If you’re opting for homeschool PE, it means that you’ll be devoting some of your time to make it look like any other extracurricular activity. Set aside some time in your everyday schedule, and include PE courses in your loop of electives.
However, you can teach PE like any other subject. For example, you can choose to be a spectator or even incorporate instructional videos. Go with whichever way you find comfortable for your teen.
Meanwhile, be consistent with PE curricula just like you would with any subject. This doesn’t mean that you should embrace the same routine every day; instead, focus on keeping it fun. This way, your teen is motivated to exercise even more.
Ideas For Homeschool Physical Education
1. Walking or Running
This is a simple exercise; however, it would be best to take a break if you don’t feel like it. Engaging in so much activity can be tedious, whether indoors or outdoors. Taking a walk around the neighborhood while enjoying nature will help create a calming effect on this exercise burnout.
2. Biking
Biking around the block or a local park is an excellent way for the entire family to engage in your homeschool PE. If biking around the neighborhood seems boring, check out for biking trails within your area. Meanwhile, embrace the safety tips by wearing a helmet and observing the road signs, especially in poor weather conditions.
3. Swimming
Fortunately, you don’t need a pool pass if you reside by the ocean, lake, or rivers. However, safety should be your top priority, especially for the little ones with zero experience.
Bobbing and bubbling are some of the safety skills you need to learn before you can toss into the pool. For the experienced swimmers, strokes, dives, and jumps are just fine. Swimming is one of the many workouts that involve the entire body.
4. Hiking
As mentioned before, physical activity does not have a specific focus. You can go hiking at local or national parks when the weather is calm and explore. There’s more to physical education than exercise. You can explore different activities and incorporate all your explorations in a single PE course. Meanwhile, carry along your learning materials to make the best out of your adventure.
5. Exercise Materials at the Park
Many times, local parks will offer exercise materials even without a gym membership. And because workout levels differ from every individual, you can enroll in a beginner, intermediate, or advanced level. Each group includes visual instruction on how to make the moves. This is an excellent way to try new equipment, learn new activities, and exercise together.
6. Calisthenics and Plyometrics
The ideas mentioned earlier are fun when the weather is calm, but what about when the weather isn’t favorable? Good news! You can try out some indoor moves in the comfort of your zone. Below are some of the in-house activities you can try:
- Push-ups
- Squats
- Frog hops
- Vertical jumps
- Walking
- Burpees
If you’re not sure about the moves, there are tons of video tutorials on YouTube, you can check out to help you learn the moves.
7. Exercise with YouTube
Suppose you’re a disciple with your homeschool PE schedule. In that case, YouTube is the ultimate platform to find tutorial videos for exercise moves, game rules, and safety tips for all sports, including your homeschool physical activities.
8. Obstacle Courses
Obstacle courses are also great to keep your child’s physical education fun and engaging throughout the day and even throughout the week. And the good news is that an obstacle course can be anywhere you go.
You can opt to give obstacle courses in your backyard or at the playground if you have one in your home. If you have no backyard or playground, you can still make one in your house using cushions.
9. Organize a Field Day
It could be boring to play you and your child in the compound. So why don’t you invite other kids for an open day and play together? Your child will find it more fun playing with peers; plus, it will provide an opportunity for them to meet with their peers and interact. The best of all is that they can break the boredom of being instructed or playing with you. You can play different games during your organized field day, including horse racing, tug of war, among other games.
10. Get Out and Play
Have some free time in the day or week? Have a playground within your home where you and your child can play some games? If the answer is yes, don’t hesitate to get out with your child and play different games together. You can play many games, for example, you can play games like “follow the leader, knock-knock ginger, pitching pennies,” among other popular games you may think of.
Outsourcing Physical Education: Is Outsourcing a Good Idea?
But what if you don’t have the time or are not just perfect at brainstorming PE ideas every day? There is an option to outsource physical education. If you decide to outsource physical education, you may want to determine whether or not the competition is healthy for your child, whether they enjoy it, how often it is practiced. Once you know this, you can go ahead and select clubs, classes, or even camps.
However, some costs come with outsourcing your child’s PE. You may want to check around and compare the prices before you jump on the bandwagon. If you are on a limited budget, you may want to consider a few tips to help you trim down the cost. For example, you can decide to meet your child’s instructor and discuss the rates. If you can, try to negotiate for discounts or a price cut.
Homeschool Physical Education that Requires Money
1. Ice skating
2. Gymnastics
3. Aerial obstacle courses
4. snowboarding
5. Inflatable play places
6. active video games
7. Golfing
8. Karate lessons
9. Treadmill or elliptical machine in your home gym
10. Organized sports through our town’s recreation department
11. Bowling
12. Trampoline
13. Dance lessons
14. Boxing or kickboxing
15. Horseback riding lessons
16. Hockey
17. Fencing classes
18. Homeschool gym classes
Conclusion
Sure, physical education for your homeschooler can be fun and healthy for your child. However, not every parent will have the time to walk their children through the physical education activities.
If you can fix it sometime, create a schedule and commit some time every day to guide your child through. If you are busy with work and rarely find the time, you may need to outsource homeschool PE activities to an expert.
