A formal PE program is not something that has been a part of our homeschool. The kids played recreational league soccer, basketball, and/or swim team at times. My older kids took Gymnastics lessons for a few years. So, they weren’t actually couch potatoes, but exercise was off and on. Emily does play outside and ride her bike a lot, but that’s about it except during soccer season. Years ago, I did briefly use a formal homeschool PE program with my older children. While I think it was pretty good, it wasn’t laid out in a manner that was very easy to use. I had to pick and choose activities, make my own lesson plans, and it was just easy to forget about.
When I asked Emily if she was interested in trying the Family Time Fitness, she was very enthusiastic about the idea. (She’s my most active child. Believe me, this would not have been my reaction at her age!)
The Fitness 4 Homeschool Program consists of PDF files that include 260 unique daily lesson plans. Each day includes 8-12 activities from warm-up to cool-down that include both written instructions and a link to a you-tube demonstration. Individual activities are repeated periodically, but no day is the same as any other. The activities include yoga stretches, crab walks, jumping, skipping and hopping, balancing, push-ups, games, and more. An optional outdoor activity is also included each day. We found that about half of the outdoor activities were games that required 3 or more players. Everything else was doable for just Emily and me. I really like that this can be done inside (eliminating bad weather as an excuse not to exercise!) By moving our coffee table out of the way, we had enough room to do the program.
Look at the scope and sequence to see all of the skills that are covered. Each day’s activities take 30-45 minutes to complete.
Fitness 4 Homeschool is designed for every age and ability level. Most activities are easy enough for a 5 year old to do, but strenuous enough to leave both my 12 year old and me sore some days! Emily is enjoying the program and I’m already seeing improvement in some of her skills, such as jump roping and stretches. I’ve also noticed that she seems to concentrate on her seatwork better after 30 minutes of good exercise! We found the program easy to follow and fun to use. I am very impressed by all the work that went into the preparation of this program and highly recommend it!
The Fitness 4 Homeschool Program sells for only $57 and includes lifetime access to any updates. If you are interested in trying it out, a free trial is available on the website.
Disclaimer: As a member of the TOS Crew, I received this program free in order to write this review. All opinions are my own.
I also love how easy it is to do most everything indoors if needed. It looks like you all are enjoying this program as much as we did.
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