> enough -- I have to /teach/ him something.  Today we
 > did broad jumping and
 > playing frisbee.  Any other suggestions for a six year
 > old??
I keep thinking of more things. :)
When I taught young kids, we had a couple of days where they played a "game" 
that was based on some of the large motor skills. They had to jump on both 
feet, jump from two feet to one foot, learned a "Cadberry shuffle" (see 
below), hop on one foot, change to the other foot and hop some more, walk 
forwards, walk backwards, jump and hop backwards, do a "jack be nimble" over 
an object from two feet and landing on one, do slides (sideways) and gallups 
(forwards) leading first with the right foot and then from the left, and any 
other sort of movement such as walking on a line like on a balance beam. We 
did it gamelike - you could do it
follow the leader with Aaron. Any of these skills that he is missing, you'll 
want to work on - they say that these make a big difference towards reading 
readiness.
A "Cadberry Shuffle", if you don't remember the commercial, is done like 
this: jump with your feet apart, then jump onto one foot with the loose leg 
bent back behind the one you just jumped onto. Jump back onto both feet (like 
a jumping jack), then jump onto the other foot with the loose leg bent back 
behind the one you just jumped onto. Repeat. It's almost like hopscotch. This 
can
be tough for kids to learn. If he doesn't catch on right away, don't worry 
about it. Try it again later. If it catches his interest, he'll try on his 
own. If he's frustrated, don't push it. Most of my K's seemed to like it. If 
he does, you can teach him to play hopscotch.
Ball skills. Riding a bike. (Do you have one? Ride with him. Teach him new 
bike skills and review bike safety - that comes under Science and Health 
too.) Pick an aerobics tape and do it together - he'll learn about taking his 
pulse and learn new exercises that will last a lifetime. Check out a "how to" 
sporty video from the library and try a few things. (Bela Karolyi of 
gymnastics fame has a great one out there called "Gymnastics is Fun", 
teaching a child to do forward and backward rolls, cartwheels, and other 
simple tricks, and it teaches the parent how to spot the child too.)
If you have a park day or similar with other homeschoolers, you might get 
together with the other parents and each teach the kids a playground game 
that you used to play when you were a kid. Otherwise, our old playground 
games will disappear. Ideas: Steal the Bacon, FourSquare, Red Rover (done on 
grass is safer), Hopscotch, jumprope and Double Dutch, kickball. Maybe make a 
goal to teach a new game every Park Day, with a different parent taking the 
responsibility. The Park Day then becomes PE for all involved, and when the 
games are all taught, the kids can fall back on them and pick their 
orites.
                                 -donna
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