Homeschool Physical Fitness for the Non-Sport Family

Physical activity is important for everyone. It keeps our bodies healthy, our minds active and our emotions more balanced. Finding creative ways to stay active can be a challenge for homeschool families who don’t participate in team sports. Here are some creative ideas for homeschool physical fitness for those of you who aren’t involved in sporting activities.

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Outdoor Activities

Take your homeschool physical fitness outside when the weather is nice. You don’t have to make it too complicated. Just pick an activity and do it!

• Take a walk.
• Ride bikes.
• Run laps around your backyard, a park or your neighborhood.
• Bounce in a trampoline.
• Go swimming.
• Play at the park.
• Ride a scooter.
• Play a game like hopscotch, kick ball or four square.
• Jump rope
• Chase bubbles.
• Hoola hoop

Indoor Activities

If gloomy weather is forcing you to stay indoors then move your homeschool physical fitness activities inside. You might need to move some furniture around to make more room. Just count it as part of the exercise.

• Dance around the house.
• Try to keep a balloon (or two or three) in the air.
• Exercise to a kids DVD.
• Toss a bean bag around.
• Bounce a ball around the kitchen or down the hallway.
• Pack up the kids and visit a trampoline park.
• Do a series of exercises such as jumping jacks, sit ups, squats, push-ups and jogging in place.

Homeschool Physical Fitness Tips

As a homeschool parent, you already have a full plate. Adding in one more thing, no matter how good it is for your family, can seem overwhelming. Here are a few tips to help you and your kids stay motivated to move.

• Keep it simple. There is no need to make physical activity difficult. Pick an activity you enjoy and get moving!
• Make it fun. If you have a bad attitude about fitness so will your kids. Stay positive and find ways to bring a little laughter into the activity.
• Add in music. Play music while your exercising. It can boost the mood and motivate everyone to keep moving.
• Change it up. Doing the same thing day after day can get drab. Rotate through different activities to keep your kids interest.
• Set goals. If I told my kids to jump rope, they’d swing the rope around once and be done. Setting goals allows them to get the needed amount of physical activity. I might suggest jumping rope for a set number of minutes or tell them to jump over the rope a certain number of times.

If you are struggling with knowing what physical fitness activities to incorporate into your homeschool then you might want to give Family Time Fitness a try. I have not tried this program myself but have heard great things about it. If you do try it out, let me know what you think. I’m adding it to my homeschool wish list for next year and I’d love to get some feedback about it.