Strengthen your students' bodies and .... math skills? Yeah, with Gymathtics!

A kids' exercise video that promotes healthy lifestyle choices, positive behavior, and strong math skills? Perhaps a little too much for a 30 minute dvd? No! Y'all, Gymathtics from Exploracise is all that! Ms. Carrie along with her exercise team guide kids through an exercise routine that reinforces math skills such as counting, skip counting, patterns, place value, and shapes.

It all begins with a "Shape Stretchers" stretching/warmup routine followed by "Counting Calisthenics", "Pattern Power", and "Well-being Wind Down". As the kids exercise, part of the screen contains a little more information and visual aids for whatever skill is being reinforced. When I first put in this dvd, I was extremely skeptical, but that changed. No, this isn't a math program, but it really does get the whole body involved in reinforcing basic math skills in a way that elementary aged kids will get into.

How intense it is? That depends on your physical condition. For most active kids, I'd say it's going to get their heart pumping and challenge them to push themselves a little, but it's a very realistic routine for kids and for active adults. The whole thing actually lasts about 26 minutes. Like with any exercise program, there's the admonition to talk to your doctor about a new exercise plan. What age kids can perform the exercises in this program? I'd say the target audience is K-5th. Younger than that, I can see frustration setting in and the mathematical part would be over their heads, and older than that, they may be embarrassed and beyond that mathematically.

Throughout the video, Ms. Carrie uses positive language to motivate kids to participate. She uses repetition to reinforce each skill, as well as visual aids and additional commentary on part of the screen when needed. And, during the wind down, she uses easy-to-remember phrases to encourage positive, kind behavior, goal-setting, and perseverance, in language kids can understand and latch onto.

One thing I thought about was this--you can also do the routine in parts, stopping to add your own explanations as needed. And, you know, younger kids may not understand every concept they are hearing, but I think they still will pick up quite a bit and be more ready for these concepts. I am thinking specifically of my first grader. We haven't gotten to prime numbers yet, but as we do this routine, she will repeatedly be exposed to that group of numbers. Even if she doesn't totally get what that concept means, she is learning that those numbers go together for some reason, and that's a start.

Okay, here's the deal on price. Through their site, it's $24.95, but on Amazon it's $16.99. I did a Google shopping search and found several prices between those two, as well, but I can't vouch for the reliability of all the sites. I hesitate to say whether or not products are worth their price because I am exceptionally frugal, but I can say that this is one that will get a lot of use in our home and that I am impressed with the way the creators successfully intertwined a really good exercise program with real math skills reinforcement, all the while promoting healthy and wise choices and positive behavior. I know I say this about other products, but check to see if the other families in your homeschool group would like to pitch in and get a copy or two for your resource library. And while you're at it, check to see if your public library would order a copy.

To learn more about Exploramania and Gymathtics, go to http://www.exploramania.com/ . I You can actually watch a segment of this product on their YouTube video by clicking here . Plus, I saw they now have a second one, too. And I found the story of how this video even came to be so encouraging and motivating. So, check it all out and see what you think!