Week 9
Plan B
Do You Have A Plan B In Your Family Fitness Plan? It can be challenging to work in time in your lifestyle for physical activities if your family is not inclined to joining sports or athletic teams, and if you don’t have daily physically demanding chores (such as on a farm or job) to do. If this describes your family, and you are like me and you homeschool, you might feel the additional need to include PE in your child’s weekly curriculum line up.
I try to include some form of physical activities in my family’s schedule each week. Sometimes it is as simple as playing in the yard or riding bikes, and other times we go to the park, on the weekend go site seeing with dad, or do other activities.
Plan A
There have been times when I have found myself wanting more than just a “playing in the yard” level of activity for my kids. We have a lot of young children, and doing much more than playing in the yard is difficult many days. Currently, we are not on a sports or athletic team. We also don’t have the extra money to afford fees for teams, uniforms, gear, etc. at this time in our life. We would like to do some sports in the future, per the kid’s interests as they get older, and as we have the finances to do so. One of our kids is interested in baseball, one is interested in football, one is interested in soccer, and all three of those are interested in tennis (which we did take lessons twice in the past). The other three are too young to know what they would like to do. So for now, we try to find activities that we can all do together and don’t cost anything, like the park, or activities that cost very little for supplies, like workshops.
Needing a consistent level of physical activity each week is one of the reasons I started Take Action Tuesdays, and Walk and Talk Wednesdays. I had prayed for almost two years for a specific direction for our family. The Lord inspired me to start Take Action Tuesday and invite other families in the area to join us. In addition to other things we do, Take Action Tuesday is time we set aside each week for being active and learning outdoors in local parks. This has been such a positive activity for our family. It has been almost two years since we started the TAT program and it has been a blessing. I am so thankful God put this in my heart.
Plan B
If the park is our Plan A, then in the winter, and on days when it is chilly, raining, or too hot, we need a PLAN B. We need an indoor place to enjoy being physical and out of the weather. The YMCA has been our Plan B this winter and it is a perfect place for us to get physical, learn something new, and enjoy our time together.
The Possibilities
Do you have a plan for family fitness or PE in your weekly schedule? What are your ideas for places to go and things to do for family fitness?
The possibilities are endless. Grab a piece of paper, sit down with your kids and spouse, and ask them what things your family could do inside and outside for physical fitness that they would enjoy. You could organize their answers according to location, season, Plan A, Plan B, time of day, skill level, etc.
Sometimes we just need to see the possibilities written down to spark our excitement and work some new activities into our schedule. Here are just a few of the possibilities for family fitness activities I thought would work well for us at different times/ seasons of our life.
Outdoor Ideas:
Park Play
Walk
Bike
Play In The Yard: tag, ball, run, hide, chase, sandbox, games, etc.
Climb Trees
Outdoor Workshops
Camping
Hiking
Swim
Baseball
Softball
Soccer
Football
Basketball
Kickball
Dodgeball
Volleyball
Tennis
Tetherball
Jump Rope
Horseback Riding
Mowing the grass with a push mower.
Weeding grass and weeds with a weedeater
Gardening
Stacking firewood
Skateboard
Walk your dog or someone else’s dog
Frisbee
Kite Flying
4-Wheeling
Indoor Ideas:
Basketball
Indoor Walking / Jogging Track
Gym Membership (YMCA)
Swim Indoor Pool
Exercise Machines: treadmill, elliptical, cycles etc.
Weight Machines: work your legs and arms with resistance and weights
Indoor Skateboard Track
Racquetball
Jump Rope
Aerobics Class
Wall Climbing
Roller Skating
Bowling
Exercise DVD
Dancing
Gymnastics
Jumping On The Beds!!!! (my younger kid’s favorite thing to do!)
Pillow Fight
Activity Journal
It was a crazy week this week. We had an ice storm, then a power outage for half the day, and then rain all afternoon, and fog that afternoon / evening, and I opted not to drive to our regular Cardio Dance class at the YMCA that evening. I don’t like driving in the fog on a busy interstate highway, so I opted to stay home. Instead we went the to the YMCA the following evening when the bad weather had cleared. There was no class for us, but we still found lots of activities to do.
Rock Climbing:
Studio B:
We love using this room. It brings us lots of laughs, brotherly competition, and lots of fun. I wish we had a room like this at home. I think it could help settle some differences at times and keep them busy when needed.
I am not sure what it is called but this machine helps you do an upside down reverse sit up and it works your back.
We jumped rope to see who could go the longest and farthest. A couple of weeks ago, my 8 year old learned to do crazy pushups with his feet on the big ball, and his arms balancing in an upside down half ball. However, this time he wasn’t able to maintain his balance on it.
Did arm repetitions with the heavy medicine balls.
Leg lifts on this machine, works the stomach and the back.
Squats using the wall and the big ball.
Push ups with the big ball. It is a lot of fun and somewhat comical to work out in this room together.
The Gym:
We walked a mile on the indoor track. That is 18 laps around the track.
Kickboxing with a machine. It lights up where you are supposed to kick. It keeps your score too.
Two of my boys also enjoy boxing with the bags (speed bag and heavy bag).
Basketball. Need I say more?
The Pool:
Swimming for over an hour. They brought their snorkels and goggles, and hunted for diving rings on the bottom of the pool. They swam and raced each other, and had a great time.
I did not swim today, but I did enjoy the steam room, the sauna, and the hot tub! Oooh, La La!
This post will be linked up with
Raising Homemakers
Sharing Time
Healthy Habit
Walk And Talk Wednesday March
Please join us on our Walk and Talk Wednesday Family Fitness Journey. You can read other Walk and Talk stories from January and February and all our friends who have linked their stories and follow along on the journey.
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