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exercise

Staying strong while staying at home

With nearly five million Canadians (or 40 percent of the workforce) currently working from home, many of us are starting to feel the effects of being cooped up with limited options for physical activity and no time to destress. But according to Kim Lavender, GoodLife Fitness Vice President of Group Experience, now is when we need to move more and take care of our bodies and minds.

Not having access to the gym can pose a problem for some, but Lavender says there are plenty of workout options at home using whatever you have around you to stay strong. But she cautions it’s important to create the right environment for home-based fitness. Make sure the space is clear of tripping hazards and has sufficient room for your exercises. Also, remember to wear appropriate footwear and have some water nearby to ensure you stay hydrated.

No weights? No problem.

If you’re used to strength training, it can be tough to match a workout with weights or kettlebells. But there are lots of household items you can use to add resistance to your workouts. Lavender suggests using full dish soap bottles, cans of soup, large jugs of laundry detergent, or paint cans as hand weights for bicep curls, triceps kickbacks, or just to add some extra weight to functional exercises like lunges and squats.

Fill a backpack with books or other heavy items and wear it on your back or carry in front in your arms while you do walking lunges down the hall. You can even get creative and #squatyourdog or use your significant other or a family member as resistance with some partner exercises like leg lifts or push-ups.

Furniture fitness

A good workout is as close as your living room, or kitchen, or hallway. Set your oven timer and get to work while dinner cooks, or while you keep an eye on the kids. Lavender suggests trying push-ups off the countertop, step-ups onto a kitchen chair (make sure it’s stable), chair squats onto an armchair, or maybe glute bridges with feet on the couch. After you put your shoes on, do some tricep dips from the bench in the hall or a timed wall sit.

Outdoor exercise ideas

If you have a patio, a yard, or a set of stairs, you have enough space for a quick high-intensity interval training workout to build your cardio endurance and burn calories. Lavender suggests picking 4-5 main exercises and doing them in a sequence for 45 seconds at a time, with a short rest in between. Push-ups, jumping jacks, burpees, step-ups, mountain climbers, speed skaters. Sprint up and down the stairs, or just carry your groceries up and down a couple of times to get your heart pumping and take your mind off your worries for a while.

As with any physical activity, Lavender reminds Canadians to always make time to warm up and cool down, as well as do some dynamic stretching. In her free daily online workouts through #GoodLifeatHome she tells participants to brace their core and listen to their body to avoid injury.

Kim Lavender, also known as Coach Lav, is vice president of group experience with GoodLife Fitness. Lavender is one of several GoodLife Fitness experts who are leading free, daily, live IGTV group fitness classes for GoodLife members and non-members to keep Canadians active during the COVID-19 pandemic. To find out more and join a class, follow @GoodLifeFtiness on Instagram or visit www.goodlifefitness.com

May 20, 2020 0 comment

Education

The Whole Child

written by Nic Enright-Morin

As parents, we all want our children to get the best education possible, and we are lucky that here in B.C., we have some of the greatest schools in the world.

But since the roll-out of the revised B.C. curriculum in 2016, education across the province has undergone a radical overhaul. The changes began in 2016 for grades K – 9, and further updates have been launched this fall for grades 10 – 12. With so much change taking place for hundreds of thousands of young people, there is a lot of talk about this new educational approach and what it means for our kids.

One school that is more than prepared for B.C.’s new curriculum is Pear Tree Elementary. Located in Kitsilano, Vancouver, Pear Tree is an innovative private school for children in kindergarten to grade 7. Their theme-based learning approach, which integrates project-based learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry-based learning, means that Pear Tree Elementary is completely in tune with the provincial changes.

Although Pear Tree Elementary is a relatively new school (they opened as a school in 2016), it is already getting wonderful feedback from both students and parents alike.

Paul Romani, the school’s co-founder and co-director, believes that Pear Tree Elementary’s progressive theme-based learning and whole child approach are among the secret to the school’s educational success.

But what exactly do these two approaches entail? As parents, we hear so many buzzwords that it can be hard to know what they truly mean. According to Romani, what teaching the whole child means is actually very simple!

“What many schools get wrong is that academics are only part of the puzzle. You have to educate kids’ socio-emotional sides: their feelings, their relationships with others, and their relationship with themselves. It’s important to develop a positive self-image.” Romani says the final part of the ‘whole child’ puzzle is a child’s physical well-being. “If you neglect a kid’s physical education and nutrition, it completely undermines all the other work that you are doing with that child. It’s no good trying to nurture a child with great academics and a stable emotional level if the child isn’t eating properly, because then they’re constantly either hyper or lethargic, because their body isn’t getting what it needs. Kids need an outlet to burn off their energy and a chance to get a proper physical education.”

At Pear Tree, all three components of the whole child are built-in to the schools’ daily routine – a mandatory healthy hot-lunch program and daily physical activity are something in which all students participate. Accompanying this is Pear Tree’s use of short-term and long-term goal setting for each child. This ensures that every stakeholder (school, parent, child) is constantly working towards meaningful and tangible goals – sort of like an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) for every student.

Romani says that children’s development is hindered when schools and families focus solely on just one aspect of their well-being. “Teaching the whole child is basically about recognizing that all of those things are interrelated. You need to treat all the components with equal importance. For example, take the sports-focused families that want their kids to be great athletes; their academics suffer, and perhaps even their personalities suffer, as a result of such extreme competitiveness. Conversely, you’ve also got families that focus only on their kid’s academic success. Look what that does to their physical and social well-being.”

Romani said if you think your child is falling short in some developmental areas, or if their schooling isn’t up to par, then as a family, you can compensate for those shortcomings by taking extra-curricular activities in those areas. “Every family has different values; it’s all about balance at the end of the day.”

Romani says that when kids don’t have equilibrium between the three elements, it makes it hard for kids to grow up into balanced individuals who are able to take on any situation that life throws at them. He recognizes it may be difficult to ensure kids lead balanced lives, but it’s well worth the effort. “I know it can be quite overwhelming, but at the end of the day, if you want your child to be well-rounded, happy and successful then you need to educate the whole child, and you can’t neglect any of the three components.”

The other innovative approach that sets Pear Tree Elementary apart from other schools is their learning style. At Pear Tree, rather than subject-based learning, students undertake a theme-based learning approach, incorporating project, problem, and inquiry-based learning.

While Pear Tree is perhaps the only school in B.C. that uses this method, the new B.C. curriculum and its inquiry-based learning model is more in-tune with Pear Tree’s philosophy. What is more, Finland, a country generally considered to be a pioneer in education, recently introduced a theme-based learning approach across their entire country.

A theme-based learning approach is exactly as it sounds; rather than tackle each subject in isolation (like math, science, art), you take a theme – such as ‘Our Living Oceans’, or ‘Biomimicry’ – and learn about a broad range of subjects under that umbrella, including the performing arts, fine arts and technology. Particular subjects lend themselves to certain themes, so it requires a variety of themes to truly include all subjects at all times.

According to Romani, “A theme-based learning approach is about understanding that everything we learn in life, including the things that we learn at school, are learned for a reason; you are studying things because they are going to be useful to you in your life. Too many schools and educators fail to realize that the skills in the B.C. curriculum are there for a reason. Our regular field trips and guest speakers demonstrate precisely this, as students get to see working adults using the same skills in their jobs that they are learning at Pear Tree.”

During a typical term at Pear Tree Elementary, students have two to three themes on the go at any one time. Kids study one theme in the morning class; and, after the morning break, they may study the same theme, or move onto a different one. Students study those two to three themes for an entire semester. Within each theme, the kids cover numerous subjects. While some have more of a science or social studies, all of them are multi-disciplinary. Romani says that when kids study two to three different themes at a time, they really balance out.

“Students are completely immersed in those themes for three months or more, and within that time they will study all the different subjects, all connected to the B.C. curriculum. We follow the B.C. curriculum, but we put our own spin on it, and go far beyond it. Our students really get the opportunity to study topics in tremendous breadth and depth, which means they acquire and retain far more facts and skills than traditional learning approaches.”

For further details, or to find out when Pear Tree Elementary’s next school open house is, visit peartree.school for more information.

November 2, 2018 0 comment

Education Health Lower Mainland Parenting

Connection Between Exercising and Education

written by Guest Author

Move More to Learn More: The Connection between exercising and education

As parents, we’re all well aware that the mind and body are undeniably linked. Any new mother who has endured a sleepless night thanks to her newborn may have issues instantly recalling her breakfast from the previous day or that upcoming doctor’s appointment next Friday. This is why we look into the connection between exercising and education.

This mind-body connection is also evident in our children. Restless little ones with too much pent-up energy will inevitably have trouble concentrating on absorbing information or successfully completing their homework. The same applies if they’re hungry, thirsty or are feeling under the weather — optimal mental development requires their little bodies to be finely tuned and in tip-top shape.

But many kiddos these days simply aren’t moving enough to achieve peak physical wellness. The Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology (CSEP) is just one of many industry organizations that recommend 60 minutes of accumulated physical activity daily for children aged five to 11. And according to CSEP, that should include vigorous intensity activities at least three times a week.

Unfortunately, kids are simply not getting their hour of daily exercise. According to statistics from the government of B.C., three out of five Canadian kids aged 5-17 aren’t getting enough physical activity for optimal growth and development. And here’s a number that hits much closer to home: one out of every four children in B.C. between the ages of two and 17 is overweight or obese.

So, why aren’t kids moving enough? While many factors are to blame, budget shortfalls and deep fiscal issues are forcing some school districts to make drastic cuts to course electives like physical education. So school-aged kids are often stuck sitting sedentary for hours at their desks with little to no reprieve.

And while the lack of movement and physical activity in our schools isn’t a new problem, a recent study underscores that the absence of exercise during the day could have an even deeper effect than just expanding your child’s waistline. Recently released research published in the prestigious Pediatrics journal proved what many parents had suspected all along — movement is good for kids, particularly in learning environments.

In the study, 500 Dutch children were closely monitored in Grades 2 and 3. One segment of the group was taught with “active” lessons, where they engaged in moderate to vigorous activity while doing math and language for 30 minutes three times a week. And the movement boosted their brain power when compared to their sedentary counterparts who learned at desks in traditional classroom settings. Those who learned with activity built into the curriculum performed better in speed, general math ability, and spelling, and were the equivalent to being four months ahead of the kids in their cohort. That’s some serious knowledge absorption.

With this undeniable boost in brain power, some local schools are ensuring that movement is a bigger component of the curriculum. Pear Tree Elementary, a new K-7 private school opening in Vancouver’s Kitsilano neighborhood this fall, finds that maintaining physical education is integral to ensure students are ready to learn and makes it an important crux of their curriculum.

“Essentially, our core focus is on the necessity for daily physical education, so having one hour of PE every day because children need to have that physical activity in order to be able to focus in classrooms,” said Pear Tree Elementary co-founder Paul Romani. “So, we use that not just as a way to develop their body, but also to help them academically in terms of concentrating.”

Schools are not the only ones trying to help reintegrate physical education back into the curriculum. Organizations and initiatives like Canadian Tire Jumpstart are partnering with some of Canada’s influential sport, wellness and health organizations to help Canadian kids get back into physical activity.

Active at School is a multi-year, multi-million dollar grassroots program that began in 2013, consisting of a broad-based group of more than 80 partners dedicated to ensuring Canadian kids receive the recommended hour of quality daily physical activity at school. Each partner brings individual networks, unique expertise, resources and marketing channels to promote the Active at School initiative with educators and decision makers across all levels of government.

Parents can also get involved in helping keep their kids active, healthy, and prepped to learn. Check with your child’s school about after-school physical activities or with your local community centre for organized sports leagues. If sports aren’t your child’s cup of tea, there’s always children’s yoga, hiking, walking, biking, and plenty of other low- or no-cost activities to get their blood pumping (and yours) regularly.

About Lindsey Peacock

Lindsey Peacock is a writer, editor, and American expat who recently transplanted to Toronto, ON. When she isn’t crafting stories, you’ll find her at the nearest dog park with her ginger husky pup.

May 2, 2017 0 comment