TJ Parents: Did your child take summer P.E.?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
DS (currently a freshman) really needs a break after his year at TJ but is considering taking the online summer P.E. class to free up time for some other electives. If your child took the summer class, would you please share your experiences? I have heard "it's no big deal; you just wear a heart-monitor" versus "it takes way more time than regular P.E. and is much harder" and would like to hear more experiences before he commits. He's an athletic kid so he seems to think that his normal level of activity will suffice.
TIA! |
Anonymous
We looked into it at one point and my child decided not to do it. It's not just physical activity, there's also a lot of research and writing that doesn't take place to the same extent in the regular class. My child felt that the physical break during the school day was more enjoyable and useful. |
Anonymous
My child is not in TJ, but he did take online PE as a rising freshman. They give you a heart rate monitor and the student has to do 90 mins of physical exercise that elevates the heart rate to within a certain range, each day. It could be 90 mins at a stretch, 2 sessions of 60 and 30 (ot 45/45), or 3 sessions of 30 mins each. That's the minimum amount of time expected for a session and the student has to maintain the heart rate for the entire session. My child is also very athletic so it was easy, but there were scores of kids who dropped out in one day. They also have an online lecture (the health part of PE) and homework daily. This was for 6 days a week, Monday through Saturday for 6 weeks. At thleast end there is a test. It did take up a lot of time and requires a lot of commitment, not just from the student, but from the family also. But for us it was worth it as it freed up a spot for an extra elective he really wanted. He now wants to do online PE this summer also. |
Anonymous
OP, PP here again. I found an added bonus to the online class. I would join my son in two of his workout sessions. I work full time so he would do 3 30 min sessions and I would join him for two of those, early morning and evening. Not only did I drop a ton of weight and felt great, we both also cherished the time we spent together. Any other time I would have come up with excuses (too busy, too tired), but since this was something he had to do, I also went along with it. In fact we enjoyed it so much that we continued our morning and evening sessions for the rest of the summer, until school put an end to it. I know he is looking forward to our joint workout sessions this summer also when he teasingly suggested I start working out from now so I can keep up with him when summer rolls around 
|
Anonymous
| Keep in mind that your heart rate has to be up for the full 90 minutes a day. Not just that you are working out then. You have to be working out hard the whole time. It takes at least 2 hours a day to pull that off plus the other work. Why not do the personal economics and finance online instead? If you do self-paced pass/fail then you don't have to go to any classes or tests. |
Anonymous
| The other thing to consider is that 11th grade is so hard there (classes are typically 3-4 AP or post-AP classes) that having the PE during the year in 10th grade gives kids a break in that year. |
Anonymous
|
OP here,
Thanks so much for your insights; much appreciated. The point about the 90 minutes having to be of a certain quality is an important one. I think my son was thinking it was *any* physical activity. I know he could use a break to balance out his classes but he is worried about not having enough elective time to get prerequisites out of the way for senior labs. He is already planning to do the PF class online, too. (I like the idea to do workouts together as I could use the push!) |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| They should use the monitors in regular pe. Most of the time it sounds like kids are barely moving. |
Anonymous
| PE was ridiculously difficult at TJ freshman year. A human anatomy course. DS did the personal fiance online after sophomore year and it was a breeze. |
Anonymous
Wouldn't PE be the same at all FCPS schools? |
Anonymous
|
My child never did summer school while at TJ. He really made use of the break provided by the summer and went to sports camps, life guarded, and did volunteer work. He is at a top ten STEM school now in an advanced math cohort, so it did not hurt him in the least to spend his summers in non-academic pursuits. If anything, I think that spending summers doing completely different activities is refreshing and helps the child to perform better during the academic year.
|
Anonymous
|
Anonymous
Does the need for a heart monitor rule out swimming? My concern would be exercising for 90 minutes on a code red air quality day in 98 degree heat. |
Anonymous
| The nice thing about 10th grade PE is that they teach the kids drivers ed. If your child takes online PE, how do they deal with that? |