Catch, Spike, Smash!

I love the language of sports. I adore sweaty little heads and glowing cheeks and sore and tired bodies and the satisfied thrill that is part of being an active kid... and adult. I might have slowed down as an adult as my priorities have shifted, but I clearly remember the fun of team sport during my school years and early adulthood. It wasn't fun all the time but not everything is and for me I loved it so much that I fought hard with my parents during my final senior years to have Health & PE as one of my elective subjects. So in the name of a wholesome education I'm working steadily towards including this 'subject' as part of our lifestyle.

Do you remember a post from a few weeks ago where I mentioned we would be using Anne Elliots Homeschool PE program? Well, like all things in our home, it's taken us a little while for it to become a solid part of our routine. We're a long way from having PE regularly but this week I wanted to try and include it at least a few times. I really recommend the program just for the language used when teaching the littles how to stretch and it provides me, aside from the program itself, with an idea of how to structure a Health and Physical Education program in our homeschool. Anne has written the warm ups in a really fun and friendly manner that has my boys laughing as they perform crunches whilst checking their belly buttons for lint and looking to their toes for dirt as the counter exercise, which helps make it a little easier to get my boys on board and ready to play along.

Part of Annes's program is to explore a new sport each week. I don't think we'll jump around that quickly because I think we'll enjoy focusing on the one sport for likely two or more weeks.

This week is Volleyball. Now I did pretty well at sport in my younger years but even so I was a little stuck for the terminology and needed some guidance as to how far to go when coaching my boys in the techniques of the game. So after a little googling I came across this cool video to provide a visual on the sport and see other kiddo's playing it. Inspirational and they could relate to the kids.

DragonflyTV Kids Do Science - Volleyball en Yahoo! Video

I also looked for some links on modified lessons for young children and volleyball in a small setting.

When I'm able to bring Volleyball to our Homeschool Group to play, I'll be using the modified rules of Mini-Volleyball as outlined in Mini-Volleyball from International Federation of Volleyball which have been especially created for our smaller crew.

For my boys we focused on:

Catching

Throwing

and returning

the ball by using only contact with the pads of our fingertips shaped into cups, whilst both of their hands are reaching over their heads when hitting the ball.

Not a lot but enough to introduce the idea of the sport to them and give them something more to play with each other when in the yard with a ball.

I'll need to take them to a park later this week to focus on digging, spiking and serving, 'cause we need a whole lot more room. I really don't fancy rescuing our balls, after enthusiastic digs, from the neighbours dogs :D!

On a very personal note, somehow I've managed to really hurt myself. Completely unrelated to any sporting activities, but I think it was from picking up my big boy last night to comfort him whilst we were at the theater rehearsing for The Music Man. It was a really long night and I was trying to keep things light with him and be jovial but eventually Kookaburra just needed me and comfort. It was half nine and there was no sign of wrapping up for the evening, so I picked my Kookaburra up in a really stupid 'Mummy nursing the Baby fashion'. So, so silly! My big boy is half my weight and I think I may have really hurt myself! I could barely sleep last night from the pain and today I felt like I could barely walk. The pain has been ridiculously immobilizing and I've been taking strong pain medication to cope. Well, I think this may be it. I'm going to have to finally relent and go in for a massage. A massage sounds so divine but the thought of near nakedness in the presence of any one but my husband is horrifying and this very thought has successfully prevented me from having anything more therapeutic then the complimentary head massage from my hair dresser pretty much, ever. But I think I'll be looking into Bowen therapy as I can't cope with this back pain. To add to my wee little troubles, I've also been feeling strangely sad for about two weeks and I can't seem to shake it. It's not my cycle and I'm not pregnant and life's pretty awesome. So all things considered it's a strange feeling to be having. But it's there and it feels like such a weight. A very good friend has recommended kinesiology in the past and I'm seriously considering it. I hate this illogical feeling and I think that kinesiology or perhaps maybe reiki may help provide some healing that I may be unconsciously aware of needing.

I have my fingers crossed pretty tight for both therapy's working a treat but as I can only do one this fortnight, it's definitely going to be Bowen all the way. Hopefully I'll be raving all about it real soon!