Creating a Physical Education Credit

Exercise became a huge part of my life in October of 2012. I discovered Zumba and it took over my life for about a year. My knees and heels suffered from it but I believe it is a wonderful form of exercise and lots more fun than other types of exercise out there. I introduced Grace to Zumba about 6 months ago but it is just not her thing. I knew she needed to have more exercise in her life as well as time during her school week that could be devoted to a P.E. credit. In the state we reside in public school each student is required to complete a 1/2 credit for physical education. So for our 9th grade year I decided to include P.E. in the overall picture. We do a variety of things to make up this credit.

• As I mentioned above Zumba classes do happen occasionally. These are 60 minute classes and really get the blood pumping.
• We recently joined a local gym and typically do at least a hour visit 3-4 times a week. This is a struggle at times to fit it into the day along with academics. I feel it is very important and sometimes one subject will get pushed to the next day to accomadate a trip out to the gym.
• When the weather is bad or we can't spend the time to go into town to the gym we have a few other options at home. We own a stationary bike that is used at least once a week for each of us. The Wii comes into play, no pun intended, sporadically with Just Dance or Zumba Wii.
• Nice weather allows us to go out on hikes and as soon as the warm up starts to spring I fully intend for us to learn to jog/run.

I feel it is extremely important to teach kids early the importance of an active lifestyle and even though the 1/2 credit for physical education will be concluded at the end of this school year we will continue to incorporate all of the above and more to stay as active as possible.