EXERCISING AS A LARGE FAMILY
is part of the Write 31 2017 Challenge.
Read 31 Days of Life in a Large Homeschooling Family for more posts.
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Exercising as a large family?
Let’s just be upfront here. It just doesn’t happen.
Not that large families do not exercise, mind you. Just that OUR large family doesn’t.
Why?
A variety of reasons but mostly because neither Henson nor I are the sporty sort. Henson can play many games and can swim and all but that is not what he prefers to do, especially nowadays when ministry work is heavy and time short. Me? I am totally not sporty and never have been. Not very coordinated either.
So, even when we were a smallish family, we didn’t exercise much either. We would bring the children out for activities once in a while but never on a regular basis.
All swim
The only exercise we “make” everyone do is swimming. And that is because it is my opinion that swimming is a non-negotiable for our family, large or not. And I have written about why this is so in LINK
Our swimming coach only takes children from 6 years old and above at the Bishan Pool. So that is when they go to him. And as mentioned before, I would like them to finish up to the Gold Medal if they can. But in reality, once they can swim and know how to float, I am fine.
Non-sporty = myopic?
Sporty families will look at us and shake their heads, I suppose. And then conclude that that is why all of us are myopic? Maybe? Probably? Who knows?
Sons are sportier
My sons are of course a lot more sporty than our girls. I am not playing stereotypes here but just stating a fact for our family,
David, our oldest started running regularly because our High School curriculum, Abeka requires one credit of Physical Education to graduate. He continued with running after that because he said that it helped him sleep faster and better. Mind you, he does not like it but he still does it. He just plugs in his earphones and run.
And just recently, he participated in the Army Half Marathon 2017! He was not happy with his timing though. But I still think he is amazing to have done it.
No one likes running
However, the other three children after him who also took the same curriculum did not take to running at all. They really saw it as a chore. Lots of “reminding” to get going when it is time for it!
I don’t blame them. As I have shared in Starting an Exercise Regime in My Forties, I don’t like running either. And I came from Cedar Girls School, a school renown for the athletics abilities, especially running! Oh the irony!
Other sports/exercise?
I prefer swimming. But my children do not like that either. They like to play in the pool not do laps. David finds that even more boring as he cannot plug in his earphones!
My other son who does not like running or swimming likes Table Tennis. Who knew? So now he takes a private one-on-one lesson with a coach at Bishan Sports Hall.
So there you go, our totally un-sporty large family who basically does not exercise. Lol!