Physical activity is crucial for children’s development, positively impacting memory, coordination, mental health, and overall well-being. In a home education setting, you have the unique advantage of tailoring physical activities to your child’s preferences and integrating them naturally into daily routines. Here’s how you can align physical activity with the national curriculum skills and embrace the benefits through various opportunities.

National Curriculum Skills and Natural Opportunities

Key Stage 1 (Ages 5-7)

• Basic Movements: Master running, jumping, throwing, catching, and develop balance, agility, and coordination.
  • Natural Opportunities: Using park apparatus, handstands, cartwheels, jumping on beds, throwing balls, and engaging in gymnastics or yoga.
• Team Games: Participate in simple team games, learning basic tactics.
  • Natural Opportunities: Playing football, basketball, tag rugby, dodgeball, frisbee, and hide-and-seek.
• Dance: Perform dances with simple movement patterns.
  • Natural Opportunities: Dancing to different music genres, creating movements to stories or nursery rhymes.

Key Stage 2 (Ages 7-11)

• Combination Skills: Use running, jumping, throwing, and catching in various activities.
  • Natural Opportunities: Engaging in sports like cricket, tennis, badminton, or table tennis.
• Competitive Games: Play modified competitive games, applying basic attacking and defending principles.
  • Natural Opportunities: Playing football, basketball, netball, or cricket, and engaging in strategic games like ultimate frisbee.
• Flexibility and Strength: Develop flexibility, strength, technique, control, and balance through athletics and gymnastics.
  • Natural Opportunities: Participating in athletics, gymnastics, or any activity involving running and coordination.
• Advanced Dance: Perform dances using a range of movement patterns.
  • Natural Opportunities: Exploring various dance styles, such as capoeira, street dance, or cheerleading.
• Outdoor Challenges: Engage in outdoor and adventurous activities individually or as a team.
  • Natural Opportunities: Activities like orienteering, kayaking, rock climbing, or family bike rides.
• Personal Improvement: Compare and improve performance using recordings.
  • Natural Opportunities: Using video recordings to track progress in activities like running or jumping.

Swimming (Key Stage 1-2)

• Competency: Swim at least 25 metres confidently and proficiently.
  • Natural Opportunities: Swimming in different environments like pools or lakes.
• Stroke Technique: Use a range of strokes effectively.
  • Natural Opportunities: Practising strokes in various water settings.
• Self-Rescue: Perform safe self-rescue in water-based situations.
  • Natural Opportunities: Engaging in water safety activities and learning rescue techniques.

Integrating Physical Activity in Home Education

Holistic Approach: Embrace the organic nature of home education by recognising that physical activity often occurs naturally. Children may instinctively move, create obstacle courses, or engage in spontaneous play, all of which are beneficial.

Motivation and Engagement: Use creative methods to motivate physical activity:

• Create obstacle courses involving jumping, rolling, and crawling.
• Engage in movement games like “Follow the Leader” or “Simon Says.”
• Set challenges for holding positions or timing activities.

Team Games and Social Skills: If traditional team games are challenging, explore alternative methods:

• Play family-oriented games or design your own rules.
• Discuss strategies and tactics by watching sports videos or playing relevant computer games.

Home Environment: Enhance physical activity opportunities at home:

• Add indoor equipment like slides, swings, or climbing walls.
• Invest in outdoor equipment such as bikes, scooters, or swing balls.

Physical Development and Writing: Understand that physical development supports fine motor skills essential for writing. Engage in activities that strengthen muscles and coordination, such as tug of war, snowball fights with crumpled paper, or finger football.

Additional Resources: Utilise online resources like Cosmic Kids Yoga or Joe Wicks to make physical activity enjoyable and engaging for children.

Modelling Behaviour: Demonstrate the importance of physical activity by integrating it into your own routine, showing its value through your actions.

By incorporating these strategies, home education can effectively support your child’s physical health, cognitive development, and overall well-being, while making learning an enjoyable and dynamic experience.

This approach ensures that physical activity is seamlessly integrated into home education, enhancing both learning and well-being in a personalised and engaging manner.

Resources

A whole heap of activities that parents can do at home. https://www.thinkactive.org/gettingactive/kids-active-learning/

AFPE is a website with lots of video clips that show how to teach the skills required by the national curriculum.

https://www.afpe.org.uk/physical-education/thisispe-supporting-parents-to-teach-pe-at-home/