Well, word gets around that you're a Jazzercise Instructor, and then one of my students happens to be a 4th grade teacher at my kids' school. Turns out that the kids were learning about muscles right around spring break, so my student asked if I'd be willing to come do a presentation on muscles for the entire 4th grade (about 100 kids, of which 2 were my own :-). And you know me, never to shy away from some fun, or an opportunity to embarass my little darlings (kids are funny that way), I promptly said yes.
As time drew near, I started to put my presentation together. It's one thing to talk about muscles to grown ups and it's a completely different deal to talk to a bunch of 9-10 year olds about it. So, I did my research, and came up with a nice little set. For the first 25 minutes I talked about some of the major muscles (as talking about the more than 600 muscles we have would not do). Then for the next 20 minutes I actually got the kids to Jazzercise to some really fun songs, mainly from soundtracks of kids' movies they would recognize.
In between the talking and the actual working out, I told the kids the story of the little lost puppy as a way of illustrating the array of muscles we have. If I haven't told you this story yet, allow me to do so now:
Growing up in Brazil, and seven blocks from the beach, if the weather was nice and warm, as it was most of the time, my friends and I would spend a great deal of time at the beach sunbathing and slathering baby oil all over our bodies (yeah, I'm horrified now, but at the time, didn't care, unfortunately). Anyway, quite frequently one of the guys, overly confident about his looks, muscles and Speedo combo, would approach one of the girls with some lame story that would highlight their many muscles. The little lost puppy was the most popular. They would say something like "Excuse me, but I was wondering if you could help me. I was walking my little puppy down the beach, and he got away. I wonder if you've seen him? He's about this big (and here he would position his forearms horizontally in front of his torso, palms facing each other - nice deltoid shot), about this wide (here, he would move the forearms vertically, palms still facing each other - nice deltoid and biceps shot). He might have gone this way (here, the left arm would open to the left side) or that way (and the right arm to the other side, thumbs pointing accordingly, so you could get an excellent shot of not only the biceps, but abs as well)?!. All the while squating down so you could see his formidable glutes & quads.
Naturally, the kids loved that little portion of the presentation :-) The following week, I was back at the school as my baby girl's team (of 4 girls) was in the finals for the Battle of the Books, which, incidentally they took 1st place (yeah, we're raising a super reader!!). At the end, two of the girls came up to me to not only say how much fun they had with the muscle presentation, but to also let me know that now the boys are repeating the lost puppy story at virtually every recess. I told them to give it time and it will fade away. However, now I'm thinking that with summer approaching, those boys, being away from school, will have a whole new audience to impress! Oh, my, what have I started?!
Oh, Battle of the Books is a totally voluntary contest they hold in 4th grade. At the beginning of that school year, the kids who want to participate are given a list of 30 books they must read before the contest begins in March. They form teams of 2-4 kids, and amongst them, they must have read all 30 books to do well in the contest. It's kinda of a spelling bee sort of elimination process, where they are asked questions like "In this book the main character learns about Capitalism. Name the title and author" (it's "Lawn Boy" by the way, by Gary Paulsen, in which a boy starts mowing the lawn for his neighbors as a way of making extra money). Our boy also participated, but got eliminated at the semi-finals. We're so proud that he was even willing to take part. He's quite a super reader as well!
