2013 Jun 01  (Sat)

Getting their energy out

I have been forewarned by the volunteers that the bunch of kids who need afterschool tutorial on their homework are all hyperactive.   Imagine…a ratio of 1 (volunteer coach) to 4 (Grade-2 kids) is way too much for the coach to handle.   I was told it’s more of a challenge to keep these kids sit still than to teach them homework.

“OK…”, I registered the words in my memory.

Day 1…

“Children, pull your desks to the corner”, I told my kids as soon as I stepped into the classroom which was shared with all the other kids and coaches.

“You don’t come and disturb my students!” I told the other boys who came to stir up attention or feign fights with my kids off.

“You do your homework.  Today, I am your tutor.” ….authoritative, loud, clear, assertive….no non-sense….my spill to my three kid-dles!

“When you finish this (subject), you can go out and jump”, I told them.  Their faces lit up.  There they went….studiously on Subject One.

“So…jump….ten times!”  These boys couldn’t wait but started jumping as soon as they were out of the classroom.  However, I held them back because I hadn’t given my “one, two, three, ready” signal yet.

Other teachers passed by.  But they were transparent to me.  It’s good they said nothing.  Even if they did, I wouldn’t give them a hoot….this time, this hour, I was in charge!

“Could we go for more?”

“No”, I said.

Back to the classroom….

“OK, if you finish Subject Two, we will go out and jump again.”

“Horray!”

That day, I gave them three windows to do their jumping….incrementing the number of times they jumped each time.

“Who is number one?” they asked when the lesson was over.

“Well, nobody is number one today.  In run #1, he is.  In run #2, he (another boy) is.  You (the third one) are the weakest.  You have to jump taller!”

Day 1 over….all three kids happy….much energy expended….all completed their homework before the end of lesson.  I gave them all a “Super-duper” in the day’s report.

Day 2…

“Can we do another activity and not jump?”  These boys had their eyes on the playground below where other older students were playing basketball.  “Can we run?”

“No, you can’t.  You may knock people down if you run in this corridor.”  So, I made them jump again.

I couldn’t think of any other activity at that moment to expend their energy.

But now sitting here quietly at home….a number of other activities came to mind

How about squat and jump, holding their ears and bunny-jump, sitting on invisible chairs for a count of 50, balancing on single leg while holding the raised leg against the buttock, lift and stretch that raised leg on the back while stretching the other hand to the front…a yoga posture…all 50 times in the minimum, some kicking training exercises which strengthen the waist, some kicking training exercises for Taichi ?    Mix and match…a combo of them plus jumping (with a given minimum height to be reached).  Wooow, fun and games!

I couldn’t wait for the next school year to start!

If you have any suggestions on activities, you are welcome to send them in!

END