When I started homeschooling, I was afraid to stray from a pre-made curriculum. I was worried about missing something vital in my kids education. Over the years, I have learned how much more effective interest led learning can be. And many interests can be stretched to cover several subjects. My girls love their sport. Here’s how we are turning gymnastics into homeschool curriculum.
Physical Education
A lot of schools still have PE requirements. Gymnastics is a no brainer for us to fulfill the girls PE requirement. The athletes spend significantly more hours on conditioning and activity than would fit in a standard PE class. And gymnastics is a great foundation for many healthy habits. The girls are learning how to safely train their bodies. Check out my post here on some of our favorite tools for gymnastics targeted strength training at home.
Physics- turning gymnastics into homeschool curriculum
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Physics is everything in gymnastics. Force, motion, acceleration, speed, etc., are all vital to complete the skills in gymnastics. If the gymnast doesn’t accelerate their run, they cannot “block” or repulse off of the vault surface. And if the gymnast doesn’t extend their glide swing sufficiently, there will not be enough power in their back swing to kip up on the bar. For a back tuck on floor, the gymnast must “set” upward sufficiently to allow ample time for rotation.
Turning physics lessons into something that your learner relates to can make the lesson stick. And using educational concepts to improve what they’re passionate about can make for some amazing practical learning. It’s like what’s shown in the movie Ice Princess when you combine learning principles with a passion. Look for more posts soon on our physics lessons formulated from gymnastics skills.
Turning gymnastics nutrition in to homeschool curriculum
How to achieve proper nutrition is almost a daily conversation in our house. The girls have learned what kinds of food fuel their bodies. We always make sure to include protein to fuel them for long practices, and support their muscles. We choose breakfast prior to an early morning practice with the discussion of how relying on a sugary cereal would make their bodies and minds feel. They learn food safety for foods that need to be packed for days on the go. Here are some of our favorite snacks on the go.
Psychology
Psychology is a huge piece of a competitive sport like gymnastics. Having psychological tools to push through the fears, disappointments, and struggles is vital. Biggs has participated in a sports performance coaching program, and learned many valuable tools which could last her a lifetime. It has given her some understanding for how and why the brain works the way it does.
Human biology- turning gymnastics into homeschool curriculum
Most of gymnastics is anaerobic exercise as opposed to aerobic. Muscles go through a cycle, including rest to build. Food goes through a process in the body to become energy. All of these principals are relevant in a gymnast understanding how their body works. They also apply to the study of biology.
Career development
Many of the older gymnasts end up coaching younger levels as a natural first job. They are exposed to things like child development, basic psychology, leadership, etc. Participation in the sport exposes them to a little bit of physical therapy and psychology, especially at the higher levels. Check out this amazing resource for physical therapy for gymnastics. We have also loved learning the mental resiliency through this program. These also open her eyes to entrepreneur opportunities such as could be found by bringing psychology or physical therapy to the gym.
Art
Gymnastics has inspired many art projects in our household. Check out my post for some of our competition encouragement goodies here. We have learned some graphic design with my favorite design program, Canva. We have had fun with multiple mediums creating gifts and projects with the Cricut. Keep watching for my post on how we’ve turned it into a business planning lesson too.
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