It's fun to be at the Y.M.C.A.!

We decided at the end of December that we would get a family membership at the local YMCA.  We had thought about it but finally went in on the 30th and there happily discovered that they were having a special on memberships! Super, so we signed up and went the next day to try it out.  They have a pool, a kids pool (which is up to my waist and is lovely and warm), a hot tub, a sauna (dry and not very hot), a track to run on, weight machines free weights, other exercise machines, a squash court, a gymnasium and also various exercise classes.  In other words, there is enough there to help us get/stay fit over the winter!  And as this particular Canadian winter is so snowy and unusually cold, we're really happy to have this opportunity.  It also gets us out of the house and doing something different.

Jonathan writes, "So this blogs topic is not about land or Christmas or even homeschooling. It is about the YMCA formerly known as the Y. Because there is no YMCA in Austria I´ll explain what the Y is. The YMCA used to be a Christian organisation meaning Young Mens Christian Assosiation. Now it´s all secular but they still have got a lot of different things to do. It is a chain like McDonalds. It is a building where they have a swimming pool, a running track, weights and weight machines, a squash court (something like tennis just in a square court and you are standing next to each other), a gym and tonnes of exercise machines with a personal TV like treadmills, bicycles, rowing machines hand bikes, stair stepping machines and something called a Jacobs Ladder. The Jacobs ladder is like a ladder which you have to climb but the higher you climb, the faster the steps come down (check it out on the Internet ``Jacobs Ladder gym´´)."

In January we signed all of the kids up for swimming lessons.  In Austria we hadn't done this as there weren't any lessons in our area and we really want the kids to improve their swimming.  Jonathan and Rebecca had had swimming at school so they were a bit further ahead than before but here they are really being challenged.  As our lessons are at 7:10 at night there are fewer children in each of the classes which is fantastic for them.  Josiah even has a teacher all to himself!



So, we're doing a little bit of everything.  Last Saturday the boys, Jonathan and Jeremiah, wanted to try Squash for 6-12 year olds.  It started at 9am.  There was also a Drumming exercise class at the same time so we decided that I would go.  But waking up on Saturday we had had a LOT of snow overnight!  Thankfully, Dominik loves to use the snowblower.  He got the driveway cleared I managed to get out.  The roads were terrible but drivable. We proudly arrived only to find out that the squash teacher had cancelled about 5 minutes before.  Fortunately the staff were really nice and let the boys play anyway, and I went off to try drumming.  What is drumming, you might ask?  I wondered too.  You take and exercise ball and drumsticks and do exercises to music.  It is basically an aerobics class with props.  A family of four and I were the only participants, so it wasn't very intimidating. ;-)

Here's your internet drumming class example! Cool, eh?

This week I decided to try the Zumba class that came a bit before the kids swimming lessons.  I was thinking that the class would be full of fit 20's and 30's and that I would be out of place.  I mainly thought that because they also offer 'Zumba Gold' and 'Chair Zumba' (really) earlier in the schedule.  But no, I was pleasantly suprised to find that it was a really mixed class.  It was fun and will be more so when I actually learn the steps!

What the class kind of looks like now (internet photo).

What I'm sure we'll all look like after a few weeks! ;-)

That's about all that's going on here with us this week.  Homeschool and exercise.  Reading and planning and I'm doing my course work. Between all that and shovelling snow we're managing to keep busy. Also Dominik taught Elena and Jeremiah video cutting. When we were swimming at the Y Jeremiah and Elena took the gopro and started filming in the water. So these are the videos that they made.

If you're enjoying our blog then consider 'Following' us and you'll be notified when we upload the next installment.  It's fun to see where the readers of our blog our- last week our blog was read (in decreasing order) in Austria, Canada, Russia (cool!), Germany, The U.S., Sweden and a few others.  That's exciting! Have a great week!