Hi I was just wondering if any of you have your children involved in gym/P.E. co-ops. Do parent volunteers teach the gym class? Where is your co-op held? Is it in a church? Do any of your parents/teachers have concerns about liability issues in case of injuries? I have my children in a once a week co-op for Music, Art and P.E. I am a parent helper to the lead teacher in the P.E. class. For the last few weeks we have been having a great time with the children and we adults were really working well together. It has come to my attention via my lead teacher that some liability issues due to injuries could occur and we would be personally responsible! I was just informed that the lead teacher is quitting due to finding this out and also due to some other minor issues. Ack! I'm unsure what to do. Have any of you been through a similar situation or know about liability? Also, do any of you have any P.E. ideas/games for kids ages 5-16 that can be done in small spaces without the use of balls or items thrown? Thanks!
Oh, of all the STUPID things!!! (Not YOU, but the situation). It just really makes me mad that you have to deal with this!!! ACCIDENTS HAPPEN, and sometimes it's NO ONE'S FAULT!!! Do you know that the main reason Home Ec and Driver's Ed isn't taught in most schools today is because the schools can't afford the liability insurance? But I sure can't blame the teacher in quitting, if she feels she can be sued if a child gets hurt. And the insurance company is such that they will FORCE the parent of the injured child to sue. They did that with my mom. She was walking on the sidewalk, and fell. The sidewalk was uneven there, but Mom felt it was her own fault. Her insurance company told her that if she didn't take the owner of the house she was in front of to court, they would not pay any more of the expenses (and it was considerable; she shattered her elbow!), AND they make her pay them BACK for the expenses they had payed out on it. She had to get a lawyer (at her own expense), who told her she didn't have a case at all. She finally got it settled between the lawyer and the insurance company.
Our co-op offers PE. It is held in our church gym (although sometimes outside if the weather is nice). The church "donates" the use of the facilities but that's the only funding they provide. The rest is made up by member fees (which are low compared to other co-ops in the area). Parents volunteer to teach the class and all families have previously signed a standard liability waiver releasing the church, etc if something happens. The church would have the same issues with any activity held in the gym. Personally, I teach or sub in PE all the time. I know all the parents and can't see any of them suing me personally but in a very large co-op, that might not be the case. We have about 42 families...totalling about 120 kids from nursery thru high school.
I think rmcx5 is right about liability waivers. You might look into getting your co-op to set these up. You might also want to check with whatever facility you're using as they may need to provide these for their own protection as well.
Thanks for the advice ladies! Since I posted I found out a little more about the lead teacher's situation. It sounds like she has some problems at home (house/fix it type problems) that she needs to deal with instead of being at gym class. I wish her resignation letter would have stated that instead. The liability situation still concerns me a bit, but I guess that at any point something like that could happen to any of us. Just like the previous poster's mother's fall on someone's sidewalk.
We do not use co-ops but we have to sign liability waivers with almost everything Ems participates in.
QUOTE=WIMom;244335]Hi Also, do any of you have any P.E. ideas/games for kids ages 5-16 that can be done in small spaces without the use of balls or items thrown? Thanks![/QUOTE] This probably varies between states, but here, we are not required to have P.E. ( in homeschool) but encouraged to do so. That said, we have taken into consideration the fact that we do Rec. League Sports for three seasons, and that basically covers P.E. Also, you can do all the Health Pyramid stuff. First Aid. Healthy Diet management planning. Wii action games. Last year we had a puppy and ds was training him...with a DVD & book program. Definitley P.E.(game dog). Nature walk. Outdoor gardening & pruning. Also, look at www.runnersworld.com Here you can find a list of charity and community events in your area that are often 5K type things, and almost always have one mile options as well as race walk options for younger folks. It is great to train kids for these things, and gets them involved in community, etc. In our state, they are only required to have ONE YEAR of P.E. in hight school, and band counts. Our cover school actually HAS a band that plays at the homeschool football & basketball games! Anyway, hope there's something you can use in there. Miller
I'm in a co-op that does Art, Music, PE and Spanish. Our co-op has a legal liability waiver that we have to sign. It absolves the CHURCH and the CO-OP as well as individual participants of each of liability should our children get hurt. Your co-op might want to look into that sort of protection. Now...waiver or NOT if my child got hurt during a gym class, I wouldn't hold anyone responsible. I guess there are neglectful people where accidents happen due to negligence....but .... Hmmm....hope you find some fun activities.
Thank you everyone for the advice and suggestions! My state doesn't require Art, Music or P.E., but our co-op does it, so that the kids get the opportunity. One of the problems with P.E. is that it is held in the church's VERY small fellowship hall in the basement. We have 3 folding tables, chairs and a piano that we have taking up space in that area too. We can't move anything, but the chairs. We are not allowed to use balls or anything that can be thrown because of possible breakage of the low hanging uncovered florescent lights. Basically, we are having the 3 different classes do stretching, running in circles, playing tag, running relays, President's Physical Fitness tests and doing music type games and movement (Head, shoulders, knees and toes, Chicken dance and Here we go round the Mulberry Bush). I've started to run out of ideas! My lead teacher, who was a great idea person and a great leader, has resigned. Thanks!
well its a good thing to get something in writing. I would that would be the only way I would do it. Everyone is just sue happy now days, no one wants to take the blame for anything or say hay thats life it happens once in awhile. No it's someone else fault lets sue..
Have you done "red light, green light"? There is also "Red Rover" we used to play that all the time as kids (just make sure to devide them carefully by age). Also look for kids yoga videos. The poses are generally very easy to learn and the younger kids like to do the animal poses. There is also the "Hokey Pokey" "Duck Duck Goose" "musical chairs" You may also see if there is a local karate class around, sometimes you can get the insructor to come do a stranger danger/defense class for free. They just want the possibility of gaining students. Not sure if that would work in your space but if it will it could be worth a shot. You can get "hopscotch" matts or make your own with paper. Is there room to jump rope? You can do basic jumping and work up to double dutch. There are several dance instruction videos out there. Something like that might work for some of the older kids.....I recommend you view it first to make sure the dance moves are appropriate. The local library may have some. We use a dvd called "Alphabet Excercise". Basically they go through the alphabet and do a different move for each letter. Don't know if any of this helps but hopefully at the very least it might help you think of something else....
Thank You! That does help! One thing I can't do is yoga though. There are some parents in our group who object to it. The alphabet exercise video sounds good. I look into it. Thanks, WIMom
