Keeping Things Fresh with Electives

The challenge I am finding with my high school age boys is to keep our academics solid but balance that with some fresh ideas for "electives".

In our home, keeping our bodies fit has always been a priority. My sons all have a liver disorder that is an issue and their stamina is not always what it should be. One of the benefits of homeschooling chronically ill children is that we can go with the ebb and flow of their energy levels. When they were young that meant shorter lessons with time for rest when needed and now that they are growing in their teen years, we have returned to that sort of pattern again. It works well with homeschooled children and I am grateful every day for the ability to keep our activity levels even with their energy.

With that said, they are still normal teenage boys and they need to work on their physical strength and have some fun every week. I purchased the book Homeschool Family Fitness many years ago and we still use some of their ideas as part of the President's Physical Fitness Challenge goals. I test them at the beginning and end of every term as a way to track their progress.

Push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, sit and reach, jump rope, and a mile run are all things they continually work on together. The mile run they complete once a week and everything else they do daily.

I also have other expectations as part of their physical education requirements. They pick from a list of "once a week" activities: weight lifting, volleyball, basketball, swimming, tennis, walking trail, or the skatepark. They have "once a month" activities as well: longer bike rides, snowboarding, longer hikes, and other sports as part of social events with our congregation.

The newest activity to be added to the list is one that our family has never tried before. My youngest son had heard about this sport and saw the course at a local park. He asked if we could give it a try and he loved it!

Disc golf is something that never occurred to me to try with the boys before for some reason. We made a stop at the local sporting goods store where a friend works and he helped us pick out a couple of discs to get started with. (I am told that we can not call it a Frisbee....I made that mistake once and I will never make it again.)

We drove over to the park and it was a glorious day, warm even. We had no idea what we were doing at first or where to even begin.

Note: If you click the photos you will go over the Flickr where you can see the photos with notes.

The signs were all so confusing.

We just decided to jump in and go for it.

My son, it turns out, is a whiz at disc golf. After a few wild throws, he really got the hang of it and was making par on each "hole".



The challenge is that the "hole" is really far away from the starting spot (click over to Flickr for notes).



The goal is really a pole with a wire basket that you throw the disc into.



For me this meant that I spent quite a bit of time scrambling around under bushes to find my crazy disc that never seemed to go where I wanted it to go. See my yellow disc there in the bushes?


At the end of the afternoon, we had scraped knees and dirty hands from climbing up and down hills and searching for lost discs. This was a much more physically demanding activity than I originally thought. The verdict from my son is that this is a new sport he wants to pursue.


In fact, on the way to the parking lot we ran into my nephew (who is a criminal defense attorney and I was wondering why he was at the park during the afternoon of a workday...hmmmmm) who was there to play a round of disc golf with his friends. He offered to help Mr. B and they have since been back to run through the course without me in tow. Providence....thanks Adam!

I decided it was not a sport for an old lady like me but I am really glad that my son suggested the activity as part of his physical education since it turns out he is a natural player.

When we started homeschooling we were pretty hit or miss with PE until I realized it needed to be on the schedule and it needed to have a shape and form or we would let it slip. Many homeschoolers feel they have to enroll their children in organized sports as a way to provide physical activity for their children but we chose not to take that road. I offer our experience as a way of showing that PE can be a regular part of your week and without much effort keep your children physically fit. My boys *need* this time and it encourages them to spend time with their dad and older adult brother too, a little male bonding time.

It is refreshing to have time to be active and to have some fun outdoors. Physical education is one way we keep our high school schedule fresh and interesting.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom