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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

I'm a little winded just from watching...

Two of my kids are in elementary school. They have PE. Remember elementary school PE? We played Dodgeball. I wasn't a fan of Dodgeball. We played Bombardment. I hated Bombardment. We played Red Rover, Red Rover. Again...not my finest hour. I hated anything where balls were thrown at me. Running into peoples' arms trying to break through was also painful. Gymnastics, badminton, swimming, relay races, four square...all those were ok. My senior year of high school I actually took PE on purpose...for fun. I didn't need the PE credit, but I did need to take an elective my second semester of my senior year. I chose PE. You know who takes PE their last semester of high school? Those kids who put it off until they have absolutely no choice. Those kids who aren't in band, dance, athletics, or some other PE credit class. We did tennis, archery, and some running. For once I was one of the best athletes in the class. For once.

My kids are learning something in PE that I had never seen before. Cup stacking. Here they are showing off their talents.





And here's a video I found that just blows my mind! I totally gotta start practicing. You knew I was going to have to try this!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cup stacking?

And I thought California's obsession with teaching the children square dancing was odd.

Although, I can do a mean do-se-do.

Anonymous said...

That looks to be about my level of athleticism.

You know what's fun? Start those two videos together and then you have dualing stackers.

Anonymous said...

We can talk cup stacking whenever you want to. My son competed last year in a tournament. My husband even "coached" 4 boys for the relay. Try doing doubles where one person is left hand and one person is the right hand. You will totally break a sweat. My son just does it for fun now.
Julie

Mamadallama said...

I had seen this before on tv but had no idea it was part of any PE curriculum. I can see that it's very useful for developing eye/hand coordination. I love the look on AG's face when she accomplishes her goal! How cute is that?!

Me. Here. Right now. said...

I LOVED bombardment. I was always the team captain and Penny Tice the other team captain. We were brutally competitive. I can't imagine either of the twins playing that game, they'd develop fake illnesses and not go to school.

Anonymous said...

That is amazing! I wish we'd done stuff like that in PE, instead of ya know, actual physical labor. lol I wasn't much of an athlete.

Anonymous said...

I had to do that..I really stunk at it. Four square? Bring it on!
♥emily

Sra said...

Well, it's not exactly athletic, but it is pretty freaking cool. I always hated gym, even though I'm reasonably athletic (I just hated having to change and get all sweaty at school, and I refused to shower), so this would have been a welcome activity for me.

Anonymous said...

well you can tell from the hair style on my barbies that i am WAY too old to attempt stacking... so you will have to practice and bring it up to the next generation, we will have to skip mine! great smiles when they were finished!

Mamadallama said...

I forgot to ask...what is bombardment? I used to love red rover. We never played dodgeball and I never even heard of bombardment before. I tried looking it up but all I find are military definitions. From the sounds of it, it's a brutal game but I need someone to 'splain it to me.

Natalie said...

mamadallama - i really don't know that there was much difference in bombardment and dodgeball. it just sounded worse! i'm sure there are many variations out there though. all i know is that i would get hit on purpose at the very beginning of the game so i didn't have to play. yeah...i'm a wimp!

Natalie said...

andrea - i know. my kids just finished the unit on square dancing. we do all kinds of fun things in texas!

citizen of the world - the kids enjoyed that! since i was stingy and only bought one set of cups it's the only way they can do it together!

julie - i so need to call you! not to talk about cup stacking. i mean we can, but just to talk and get together! i didn't even know they had doubles. and so far...i suck at it!

mamadallama - my kids have loved it! so far i'm just frustrated!

hahn - now why doesn't it surprise me that you loved bombardment? i always got hit on purpose at the beginning so i could sit out the rest of the game. i wasn't into brutal competition at all. i'm sure you're the one who isn't surprised now!

kris - i know! i wasn't much of an athlete either. i was on drill team for a short time before i moved one year. that was it!

emily - i bet i stink worse than you! and you'd probably kill me at four square too!

sra - i know! it is fun to watch for sure!

friyet - now there...i'm sure you could stack cups! seems like something anyone could do with a little practice. maybe not in 7 seconds, but still.

josetteplank.com said...

Ah yes! My kids do this in gym class, too. I think it's great for eye-hand coordination!

Ans a $15.00 set of cups will completely trump my husband's argument that we need a $259 Wii to develop the same thing.

Anonymous said...

btw...Band is a PE credit class?

Irrational Dad said...

thats.... interesting. It's crazy (to me) that it's part of the curriculum. I could see doing it for fun... but for a grade? I dunno.

Natalie said...

jozet - i thought the cups were well worth the $15 we spent. the kids have played with them a ton! the wii...well they've played with that too, but the cups are portable!

emily - in high school it is. marching band...coordination, talent and sweaty band uniforms. yep...a pe credit!

joe - thankfully i think it was more a participation grade than anything. maybe they wanted to see improvement. i'm sure the grades didn't depend on how fast you were though.