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I started running a homeschool gym day this year for our rural
area.  We have only had a few families participating (most do school at
home & have told me they don't have time in their schedule to take
their kids to an activity that they would "just play" at).  But it
actually works well with just a few families and 6-8 kids usually, plus
moms, who are also encouraged to play:)  My kids weren't interested in
doing organized sports, probably because we haven't really encouraged
or explored those programs at all- we live pretty far out in the
country and it would involve a lot of time and driving- we tend to like
to stay home most of the week, but anyways...

For gym day we do all sorts of "just fun" run around games- freeze
tag, relay races, jump ropes & a bunch of other games I got from a
couple of cooperative gym games books.  One of the families likes
organized sports and sometimes her kids suggest kick ball or soccer-
which doesn't usually go over well since her kids know the rules and
get upset when the other kids don't "get" the game, and my kids usually
get upset when they aren't as good as her boys at playing soccer for
instance.  We would practice that more if they wanted. 

It's been fun to get out of the house during the winter for this a
couple of times a month (we started with once a week, but my car died
before the holidays, etc, etc).   And it's mostly the same kids who
come to our homeschool 4H group, but it's fun to be able to just run
around and play and not have an "academic learning activity" (which
most of the moms want at 4H).  Plus, the moms get to have fun and play
too!

Amanda


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