Quarantine Day 42: Ninja Theme Thursday

Ninja Yoga

Today we took time out of our regular day to do a fun Ninja themed day as has been our Thursday tradition since we've been homeschooling.

Naomi did her school work this morning while eating breakfast and then logged in to her google meet classroom time. Juliet and I painted while we waited for Naomi to finish her class. After her class was over we began our Ninja day!

To begin the day we did Ninja themed yoga and some mindfulness to find our inner ninja. Afterwards we watched a video on the history of Ninjas and learned about Ancient Japan. Then we headed to the basement to begin our training. There were six components to today's training: Balance, Target Practice, Acrobatics, Stealthiness, Strength training, & mom's version of Kung Fu.

Balance Training
We began with balance training. They had to walk on the low beam then run on it. They had to get comfortable standing on the low beam. They had to walk across the beam very quietly so no one would hear them. And the final test of balance was walking across the beam while being 'attacked,' where I threw bean bags at them to try to knock them off.

Acrobatics Training
The kids are pretty good at this, I mean the ninjas in training are very good at this already. Juliet practiced flips on the trapeze while Naomi practiced along the ninja line. They did this for a bit and then I said the floor was lava and they had to only use the trapeze or ninja line to get around!

Strength Training
For strengthening we moseyed on over to the exercise are and did some weights, lunges, sit ups, planks and pushups. We worked our biceps, triceps, abs, quads and probably other muscles too!

Target Practice
For this skill we hung up our net swing and the girls, ninjas in training, had to throw the bean bags from our corn hole set, into the corn hole board. First round they had to try just sitting on the swing. Second round I pushed the swing and as they swung they had to try to throw the bean bags! This was a bit harder. The third time they had to do it laying down on the swing.

Stealthiness
This training exercise was about being quiet and tiptoeing around so that I couldn't hear them. Once they had mastered this they had to find and steal a box of macaroni noodles. This was tricky because those noodles are loud! They did well though!

Kung Fu
I'm no kung fu master but I did take taekwondo as an elective in college. So we practiced our stance and punching and blocking and kicking. This didn't last long before they wanted to 'fight' each other. So they play fought for a bit.

I told them that one of their missions now that training was over was that they had to steal an oreo from the pantry without us knowing! They were very excited about this and also over excited and wanted JP and I to leave the kitchen during lunch!! But I said that ninjas had to have patience.

Juliet was tired and had many meltdowns today and was just in a grouchy mood. All through training and after lunch. She really needed a nap. After the final straw of her threatening to throw her helmet at her sister we went upstairs together to lay down and try to nap. Of course while we were doing this Naomi snuck her oreo. She came upstairs to sort of gloat but didn't say anything. So of course Juliet wanted to try to get her oreo. I left her to nap and called Nana and discuss something and Juliet snuck out and downstairs and got her oreo too!

Then I had to go to a meeting and the kids got to watch Kung Fu Panda. This pretty much ended the ninja day for us. After my meeting we had dinner and then read books and went to bed!!

JP and I are on this quest to find the best fan edit of the movie The Hobbit. Tonight we're on our second one.