Gaps cont.

My mum sent me an email about my latest blog to "suggest a gap for your consideration as to its priority to tackle (or not)." Sport. As in exercise. As in ball handling skills and riding a bike and running and jumping and kicking and dancing and ... maybe even being a member of a team.

I don't want physical exercise and recreation to be a gap, because I do consider it important to general health and well being, despite an article last weekend in The Weekend Australian Magazine ("Why exercise doesn't work" 27-38 Oct 2007). It also yields benefits in gross motor and interpersonal skills. I am just a little afraid that team sports could easily take over all of our free time, if we let them.

Some ideas on how we might bridge this gap:

Jeff and Joshua are signed up to start weekly Karate lessons after Jeff's exams are over, at a club that meets on the corner of our street (how convenient!). I think a father and son from our Wednesday Bible Study might join them. Thus Joshua will have an opportunity to mix with an established friend in a more formal setting. And this will also be a nice "boy" thing to do with his Dad.

As an aside, while we were driving in the car yesterday morning, Joshua told Anna "You won't do Karate, that's only for boys. Girls go to sewing lessons." (He told me he just thought that one up in his head and didn't get the idea from anywhere in particular. Jeff and I had a good giggle.) Maybe we could send the girls to ballet or gymnastics when they are a little older, rather than Karate.

This summer we are planning on teaching at least Joshua, and probably also the girls, to swim properly, depending on how they all go at it. We should take along our frisbee while we're at the beach.

We are also considering heading out for some of the Summer Season of Orienteering which is on Saturday afternoons and early evenings with a mass start. Orienteering and Rogaining are my "family" sports - I was an orienteer for over two decades, including a stint as the local club president, before I met my husband. The other family from our Bible Study will be going to some of these O events, so there would be social opportunities with them as well. Obviously with Jeff's planned career as a minister, Sunday sport won't be happening, but this might be more doable.

Our wonderful stunt kite broke last time we took it out to the local park, unfortunately. I should look into getting that fixed.

I have looked into Little Athletics, because this is something all the kids could do at the same time rather than having different times and days for team practices because of different ages. Apparently, Joshua will be old enough to do Little Athletics from next (2008-2009) season.

There is a local homeschooling group who do rollerblading, (or maybe it's ice skating, I forget,) locally once a week, once the kids are over a certain age (maybe 8) and there are other sports we could do with homeschool groups.

I realise that all of these ideas are more individual sports rather than team sports, and also none of them involve ball skills, so we might look into a winter team sport that involves balls in 2008 or 2009. Still thinking and looking around for something that gives maximum return (interpersonal snd physical skills) for minimum family impact (time committment, travel).

Jeff has been plugging for a proper bike for Joshua for a while now and I suggested we wait a while but we might get him one for his 5th bday. Every time Jeff sees them on special in a catalogue he wants to run out and get one. I remember I got my first proper bike for my sixth or seventh birthday and I think that was just about right because I didn't need to have a teeny tiny one to avoid the need for trainer wheels.

I do have gross motor skill time down on my list of "kindergarten" activities to include in our 2008 schedule when I have my week of planning in a month or so. At the moment, other than the above, I was just thinking of this being regularly scheduled but informal dance times with the kids listening to our mulltitude of fun CDs.

I also plan to make sure they continue to have outside free play every day that it is feasible. There was an article in The West Weekend Magazine recently ("The protected species" 27 Oct 2007) on the benefits of free, random play (eg climbing trees, dodge ball) rather than organised play (eg climbing a jungle gym, cricket) for developing physical skills. I think part of the idea was that more natural situations have greater diversity so there is more physical skill (flexibiility, reaction times) required as well as greater mental skill (problem-solving, tenacity). While I was reading the article, I fondly recalled my blackberrying expeditions past the bottom of our block in the Adelaide hills as a young child. I really hope that we can continue to live in houses which have decently sized back yards for the kids to play in.

Yeah, I think we'll be able to bridge that gap.