What To Do For Gym?

Pretty much wherever you live physical activity will likely be a required (or at least strongly suggested) component of your home education program. Thirty or more years ago we might have asked ourselves why to bother. Kids were always on the go then. We left home after breakfast and played outside until supper time. If we weren’t on our bikes, we were at the pool or in the park. When we weren’t doing those things, we were playing tag or hopscotch, skipping, or climbing up the side of a ravine. In winter we would spend all day building snowmen or forts, or even piling up snow until it was high enough to slide down. And if there was a good sliding hill nearby we would brave the cold for hours, not coming home until dark.

Things are different today. Our kids not only have a ton of technology that we didn’t, but they have none of the freedom we enjoyed when we were their age. Open any newspaper or flip on your favourite news program and you’re sure to see the result of these changes. Kids are no longer living physically active lives. They are restricted to going outside when an adult can supervise them, and while stuck indoors they have a whole range of sedentary activities that we never even dreamed could be possible. For us gym was a fun break from the books. For our kids, it is perhaps the only time in a busy day when they can move around unfettered.

So if your kids are in public school there will be a gym and a teacher, and if you’re lucky a soccer field outside to meet their needs for exercise. But if you home educate what do you do? You could sign them up for swimming lessons or a local sports team, or you could cycle together or take them to the park a couple times each week to throw around a football. Sometimes home school cooperatives get together to book some kind of activity at a community center or pool. As with all areas of our children’s education, there are a number of choices available.

I would like to offer one you might not have considered: martial arts classes.

Canada’s Physical Activity Guide groups exercise in three categories: 1) endurance, 2) flexibility, 3) strength. Endurance activities are those that give a cardiovascular work out. They warm the body, increase heart rate and breathing, and burn lots of calories. Flexibility activities are those that stretch out our muscles and help them to relax. They also improve joint mobility. Strength activities are those that sculpt the muscles, strengthen bones and improve posture. Because up to 40% of bone density is laid down in four years of adolescence, doing weight bearing activities during these years can help prevent osteoporosis.

I’m by no means an expert, but I do happen to have known quite a few martial arts students over the years who have helped me learn a bit about some of the different forms. What ‘ve learned is that martial arts classes offer a full range of the three types of exercise, emphasizing strength & control, speed & efficiency, flexibility & balance. In fact your child may do a variety of the three types of exercise just during the initial warm-up period. Look for jogging/running laps, jumping jacks, squats (endurance,) neck, leg, arm, groin and trunk stretches (flexibility,) sit-ups/crunches, push-ups and a variety of other resistance activities (strength,) just in that first 30-45 minutes of a class. Even though martial arts vary a great deal in the techniques they teach or emphasize, they many are fairly “whole body” activities.

Many of us make the decision to home-school because of violence in public schools, or because we want to avoid negative peer pressure. Studying martial arts is an opportunity to develop life skills such as self-confidence, discipline and respect, and self-defense. In a good class, avoiding a fight or defusing a tense situation will be taught alongside the techniques that can be used if avoidance is not possible. There will also be a cooperative atmosphere in which any student quickly learns to follow the example set by more advanced students. Thus the instructor spends much less time dealing with issues of discipline, because the group is self-regulating.

Our girls have been studying Ju-Jutsu for just over a year. While most kids seem to be introduced to martial arts through Karate we had been advised by a family friend to look for an art more like Judo, as it would be better as a self-defense technique in the long run. A referral from another parent brought us to a very small & mostly unadvertised dojo, which as luck would have it was located within blocks of our home. Classes are mixed age and skill level, so there are both kids and adults of all belts in the same group.

While some people may prefer to try a class designed specifically for children, we find the girls are quite comfortable in the mixed aged atmosphere. They benefit from the maturity of the older students, and while a certain degree of patience is exercised on the part of the older members of the dojo, they are expected to take responsibility for their training in a way I suspect they would not experience in a kids’ class. Another benefit is that Mommy & Daddy were able to join the class too! This makes classes more family-centered, which reinforces our philosophy about home-schooling and lifelong learning. It also allows the girls to be active with their parents (and see that we struggle as much as they do!) which experts say promotes a healthier lifestyle in kids.

OK, so what about the cost? Well, in our case the classes for all four of us cost less than the babysitting charges for our two other kids, who are not yet ready to join the dojo. And our babysitter is quite reasonable. Needless to say, we get a good discount! Costs at other dojos seem to be affordable, too. There are Karate classes nearby that cost about the same as the average dance class per month. Aside from the registration fee and monthly tuition, there isn’t much to pay. A gi costs about the same as a pair of tap shoes or soccer cleats. There may be extra fees for belt passings (ours are, again, very reasonable) or for extra activities like camps or competitions. The latter, of course, are generally optional.

Are there any drawbacks? So far, I haven’t noticed any. Our kids are learning to be responsible, to challenge themselves, to compete in a healthy and safe setting. They are part of an extended family, and have gained themselves a bunch of “older brothers” who encourage them to do their best in all aspects of life. We are also very fortunate, in that there are a number of women in our style of JuJutsu who have reached black belt & there is a very healthy attitude in the dojo towards the participation of women and girls.

If you would like to see for yourself the benefits of studying martial arts, I suggest you do a little research and then take time to shop around for a good school. Check your neighbourhood to see what kinds of courses are available, and then check out your library or the internet to get a basic idea of what to expect from that specific art. Selecting a class is pretty much common sense. Look for a positive and safe atmosphere, for a teacher who has a good relationship with the students, and for senior students who have clearly gained skills (rather than being passed after a set amount of time in class.) Be sure to watch a couple classes, and ask up front about things like fees and expectations. A good school will be very open and communication will be easy. The best piece of advice you will ever get is to be choosy. Shop around until you find a dojo that feels right. When you do, it will feel like coming home.

For more on martial art, see The Gentle Art

This work was written by Ruby of Freehold 2 and is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

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Tags: gym, Health, homeschooling, kids, martial arts, Physical Activity