CM 3 Episode #11 What is Swedish Drill? Hint: It’s not something you purchase at IKEA with Julie Ross and Dawn Duran

CM 3 Episode #11 What is Swedish Drill? Hint: It’s not something you purchase at IKEA with Julie Ross and Dawn Duran

Links and Resources:

Show Notes:

Dawn is the mother of two boys and the wife of a citizen-soldier whose most prized role is that of stay-at-home wife and homeschooling mama. She has fully embraced the philosophy of Charlotte Mason and is enjoying the journey of “learning how to live.” Dawn has created Swedish Drill Revisited to assist homeschool families effectively embrace a forgotten form of physical education and is the coordinator of the Charlotte Mason Maryland community. Dawn is also a regular contributor for Common Place Quarterly.

When she is not reading or spending time with her family Dawn is acting as a moderator for the AmblesideOnline forum, teaching Health Science for Purdue University Global or working as a physical therapist at a local hospital.


Swedish Drill Revisited manual for purchase:

http://www.swedishdrill.com/swedish-drill-revisited.html

Blog posts that offer a free peek at Swedish Drill:

https://afterthoughtsblog.net/2016/07/beginning-swedish-drill-videos.html/

https://afterthoughtsblog.net/2016/08/swedish-drill-videos.html/

https://afterthoughtsblog.net/2016/09/swedish-drill-3.html/

https://afterthoughtsblog.net/2016/10/swedish-drill-part-4.html/

https://afterthoughtsblog.net/2017/07/swedish-drill-co-op.html/

Show Transcript:

CM EP 11




Julie -

Welcome to the Charlotte Mason Show, a podcast dedicated to discussing Ms. Mason's philosophy, principles, and methods. It is our hope that each episode will leave you inspired and offer practical wisdom on how to provide this rich living education in your modern homeschool. So pull up a chair. We're glad you're here.

Today's episode of the Charlotte Mason Show is brought to you by Medi-Share. Find out more about this affordable Christian alternative to traditional health insurance at MediShare.com.

The Charlotte Mason show would like to thank their sponsor, Operation Christmas Child. Many of you have packed gift-filled shoeboxes but the journey of a shoebox doesn't end there. Discover how Operation Christmas Child shoebox gifts lead to evangelism, discipleship, and the multiplication of believers and planting of churches at SamaritansPurse.org/make disciples.




Hi everyone, welcome to the Charlotte Mason Show. I'm your host, Julie Ross, and today I am here with Dawn Duran. Hello, Dawn.

Dawn -

Hello, Julie. It's wonderful to be here.

Julie -

Yeah, thank you so much, and I'm excited to get to talk to you about this topic because it's something I get asked about a lot because people are, like, what in the world are you talking about. Cause I include it in my curriculum and it's a very obscure kind of topic that we don't really see very often in educational circles today. And it also something that I want to get better at doing with my own kids, so this is partly selfish to get to talk to you today. And the topic that we're going to be talking about is Swedish Drill. And I jokingly put on the title that it's not something you get from Ikea.

But, I think it is something that, we're like, what in the world. Never heard of it, okay? So, we're gonna dive in, to kind of all about it, but before we get started, can you just briefly tell us a little bit about yourself and your family and kind of how you all got started on this homeschool journey?

D -

Sure, sure. So, well, once upon a time I was division one volleyball player in your native land. But in your neck of the woods now. And I was a strength and conditioning coach and Pilates instructor, and my graduate degree is in physical therapy, so I worked as a physical therapist for specializing in orthopedics for eight years before we started our family. And then, I embraced the opportunity to become a stay at home mom even though my husband and I did not have prior discussions about this being the path we would take.

J -

Yes.

D -

Nor did we ever discuss the idea of homeschooling. In my mind we did, because I always knew we were going to homeschool, but, apparently, I didn't tell my husband that until the time was about to begin. So, grateful, thankfully, he was on board and on board with the, me being a stay at home although, circumstances have led me, at times, to have to work in various hospitals doing acute care. And I also teach online. Teach health sciences for Purdue Global University. But I do, since my oldest...

J -

I think so many of us are kind of in that boat. Especially nowadays, you know, so. Homeschooling and working part-time to you know...

D -

Right. And I just feel really grateful that I have an ability to do something, work just a little bit, and still be able to focus as much as I am able to on the education and life with my two sons, so, we have... my husband is citizen-soldier. He primarily works as a civilian, but currently, he's actually deployed on a mission with his Army reserves unit. And our two sons are nearly ten and nearly thirteen. And we have been educating the Charlotte Mason way since the beginning, which is very exciting.

J -

Yeah. So, how did you hear about Charlotte Mason, like, were you just kind of, like, oh, I'm definitely homeschooling? I'm gonna research all this stuff ahead of time.

D -

Yes. That's what I did.

J -

Oh wow, that's great.

D -

And so when my oldest was about two and a half, at that point I thought it was just school at home. I was one of those kids who really thrived in the public-school system. I was a nerd.

J -

Yeah. Me too.

D -

So, I didn't know any other model, so I was really surprised to find out all the various philosophies out there. And a bit overwhelmed initially, and, in fact, I remember very clearly at the outset, discovering Kathryn Levinson's book about a Charlotte Mason education and thinking, uh, that doesn't really sound like it's something that we would do. And I just moved on to the next thing. But I ultimately, about a year a later, tumbled upon the Clarkson's book, Educating the Whole-hearted Child.

J -

Oh, yes, I love that book. Yes.

D -

And, from there, I finally read For the Children's Sake, and I was sold, and just started to read Mason's volumes over and over again at that point. And I just feel very blessed that I had a good year and a half of solid reading her volumes before our homeschool journey began.

J -

Wow. Yeah, you are so blessed.

D -

Yes, yes, yes. I definitely acknowledge that when I hear of these people who are...had already educated some of their children and then discovered the philosophy and got to switch to it. It can be overwhelming to implement it while learning about it.

J -

Yes. Yeah, that was part of my situation. So yeah, that's great. And did you see...I don't know if you've seen that Sally Clarkson just released a book on homeschooling.

D -

No, I didn't.

J -

Which I am so excited to read, cause I, yes, I love her. She has been a huge influence, not just on my ideas of homeschooling, but just on motherhood in general.

D -

Absolutely.

J -

Yeah. She's a treat, so, cool. Well, okay, so how, though, did you get interested in this specific topic of Swedish Drill, in terms of all the Charlotte Mason aspects?

D -

Yeah, yes, yes. So, it started off organically, but also played into my background, which is why I had the head up at the beginning, not to toot my own horn in any case. But that was...the trajectory of my life was on health and wellness before I even became a parent, so when I first started teaching my oldest son, as a six-year-old, naturally he had an abundance of energy, and I was trying lots of things to try to get him to get rid of some of that energy before we sat down for the hour a day of lessons that we did at that point. But I found that, everything I did, you know, traditional, calisthenics, maybe just going around playing tag outside. All of those things did the opposite of what I wanted them to do. They actually increased adrenaline levels and decreased his ability to focus on. Wear him out. It hyped him up all the more. And at that point, I had read about Swedish Drill in the volumes, didn't know much about it. And there's a reason why Charlotte Mason mentions it but doesn't elaborate on it very much in the volumes. But...

J -

Why is that?

D -

Okay, okay. So, she mentions...let me find the quote. She mentions that a few things...the same is true for Sloyd and mathematics. There's a quote where she writes, and I'm trying to locate it right now. I can't at this very moment. But, these things are already well understood.

J -

Right. Okay. Yeah.

D -

They were already in practice widely. She thought they were well done, and there were so many resources to learn about them, and they were still well-known, she didn't feel the need to elaborate on them. So, she just casually mentions them in the volumes. And if I find that quote later, then, I will share.

J -

Yeah. Yeah, well I totally get that. It's like, you know if I was writing, like, an educational philosophy book, and I just mentioned, like, oh, I got this idea from Instagram. Like, everybody would understand that, but like, a hundred years from now, I think...like, I would have to elaborate what Instagram is. Right? And so, like, these practices were very common. And I see that when we read some of the books from that time period. I'm thinking specifically of, like, Anne of Green Gables, you know? Her doing something that sounds very similar to Swedish Drill to me.

D -

Right!

J -

Yes. In that book.

D -

Well, they were. They were. So, this was actually...Swedish Drill was a system of exercises developed by a man named Pere Enrique Ling. And you might...that name might sound familiar to you because he's also known as the father of Swedish massage.

J -

I need to add that to our day!

D -

And having your students...

J -

Yes! My kids...

D -

Practicing on you, though, right?

J -

Yes! Exactly! At the end of the day? This is a great...wow. We are totally changing our schedule...

D -

An added bonus, you didn't even know that you could pursue. I love it. But he developed the system of Swedish gymnastics based on his theories that were adapted to reflect the medicinal value of exercise as a form of rehabilitation from illness. And it's important to clarify, though, that gymnastics then, was not the same as we have gymnastics now. It was not at all the same.

J -

They weren't dancing around to music and stuff?

D -

Right. Or on a beam, or on the bars. None of that. It was really just prescribed exercises to try to offset some of the natural problems that would happen through the way we were using our bodies during the day. For example, when our children start going to school in kindergarten, or in first grade, they start to sit an awful. They start to do a lot of things in front of their bodies with writing, so they become...they start to develop this hunched over posture, this rounded back, as early as age five, in many cases, when, prior to that time, they're doing so many things that really open up their chest and help them stand upright and don't develop these postural deficits that are just the result of repeated use. And so, recognizing that Swedish Drill was devised to counter those effects. And when education in England became compulsory, in 1870, for the ages of five to thirteen, they actually included in their legislation, a clause mandating that Drill was, would be given two hours per week.

J -

Wow.

D -

The schedule.

J -

I mean, we don't even get that for recess now. Right.

D -

Right! Right. And I mean, in public schools, nowadays, gym classes are one of the first things to meet the budget cuts, right? That was not so in Charlotte Mason's time. And definitely not on her schedule, where, in the PNEU timetables, there is thirty minutes dedicated per day to some sort of physical activity, whether the child is in form one, or in form four, or form three, whatever...not necessarily form five. But, this is a tragedy...that's like, 18% of a school week, dedicated to physical education. Are you doing that? No. I'm not putting you on the spot. Most of us are not.

J -

Yeah. Right.

D -

How far have we come, right?

J -

Yeah.

D -

At that point, when it was first implemented, drill was not necessarily Swedish drill. It was military drill, because the English school, public schools, were seen as kind of a breeding ground for a future of officers in the army. And this was during Queen Victoria's reign when they were 28th in the turret campaign so... But in the early 1900s, they made the transition to Swedish Drill, and that has been widespread ever since. Now, I do wanna clarify one thing, too, though. On the PNEU timetables, where Charlotte Mason's schools would see Drill written, it didn't mean that it was only Swedish Drill. Swedish Drill was certainly a big part of it. It's one that she calls by name in her volumes, repeatedly. But if you look at the programs, it includes things like military drill. It includes things like folk dancing and marching. So, it's not just...it also meant games and play... So, it wasn't just Swedish Drill, but because this is the area of my focus, that's really what I know the most about, that I dove into uncovering more about what Swedish Drill is, was it still valuable for people today, and that's what's brought me to your podcast today, I think.

J -

Yeah. For sure. Yeah, that's really an interesting point that you know, this was something that was valued in her time and something that people would, kind of, be familiar with, even though it's just so foreign for us. I do wonder, and I don't if you've come across this in any of your research, it's just me thinking about loud here, but, just, if it was so common and the legislature of England saw the value in it, why it gradually became so obsolete.

D -

Yeah, I don't know.

J -

Yeah.

D -

I think that's more of a modern thing. I think it's more American, even, than in other places.

J -

Yeah.

D -

I would have to go and check what...but just from little bits that I've heard, I haven't done this research officially, that the US in imposing all of these standards of learning and all of this testing and teaching for the test, trying to find more time to shove this knowledge for the test into children, this is one of the things that was seen as not entirely necessary anymore. That goes completely counter to what Charlotte Mason felt about physical education and several people who wrote about physical education for the Parent's Review. In particular, there's a teacher, a woman, I don't know if she was a teacher. Her name was Ms. C. Thomas. And in 1904, she wrote something regarding the purpose of including physical education in the curriculum as well as the ultimate aim of exercise, which really resonated with Charlotte Mason's own writings on the matter. And she wrote this:

Physical education is a means of helping towards the end of all education. And the influence which the gymnastic lesson has upon the mind should be realized, if one is to obtain any correct knowledge of the subject. This is the great aim of physical education in its general sense, since it strives to help the mind to gain the victory over the body. Not by ignoring the body and its needs, but perfecting it as much as possible.

J -

Wow. Yeah, and I think, like, our physical education and like, you know, when I was growing up, and then when I taught in public schools, it's very game-focused and team-focused, right? And it's not on this personal development that I see, and drove also, like, in gymnastics, you were talking about that, perfecting and working on ourselves. And I think that does tie in with what she was talking about just in terms of strengthening our mind muscles as well, right? When you persevere and exercise, that can translate into the good habits that you bring to school as well.

D -

Exactly. Exactly. And the more I learned about Swedish Drill, the more I realized why Charlotte Mason chose this philosophy, not only because it was the dominant one in the day, but it melds so beautifully with her purposes and the habits she tried to have us instill in our students. Obedience. Observation. Perfect execution. All of these things come to play in Swedish Drill. They cannot be implemented properly without these things being finely tuned and practiced. From the same...I wanted to quote from that same...oh where did I put it...the same article by this Ms. C Thomas. It was called Physical Education For Girls, and she wrote, precision is to be aimed at. Simple, unquestioning obedience is rarely to be met with now. Everywhere, the lack of it is felt. Disobedience and carelessness in attending to all directions is the great trouble encountered by all who have to train others. Movements performed towards a command should, and certainly do, help to form habits of obedience and promptness. Accuracy of details implicates a sense of truth, and this will, finally lead on to courage.

J -

That's great.

D -

So, that plays into...if we wanna have Charlotte Mason's vision for physical education, we should look at School Education, chapter ten, which is entitled, Some Unconsidered Aspects of Physical Training. And there are some lengthy quotes on pages 101 through 103, that I am just going to touch on and not say, and their entirety. But we can reference those if you think.

J -

Yeah. For sure. Yeah. I'll link them.

D -

So the subtitle is, Does Our Physical Culture Make Heroes? We want to turn out a fine animal, a man or woman with a fine physique, and in good condition, and we get what we lay ourselves out for. All the same, it's questionable whether we are making heroes, and this was the abject of physical culture among the early Greeks, anyway.

J -

Yeah, right.

D -

Men must be heroes or how could they fulfill the heavy tasks laid upon them by the gods. And in then in the next subsection, it talks about a serviceable body being the end of physical culture. And it says, the object of athletics and gymnastics could be kept steadily to the front. Enjoyment is good, by the way, but is not the end. The end is the preparation of a body available from crown to toe, for whatever behests the gods may lay upon us. And in the very next subsection, I believe it's the very next, is subtitled, Ye Are Not Your Own, which was a clear reference to First Corinthians 6:19 and 20, where she write...where...where, not you, thinks... no, she didn't. Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.

So we have a Biblical mandate to take care of ourselves.

J -

Yes.

D -

Physically, as well as emotionally, and socially. Psychologically. All of the above. I feel very strongly that one of the first things to be dropped from people, whether it's public schools or homeschools, is this important topic of physical education.

J -

Yes. And I think, it just relates so much to her philosophy of, that education is a life. This is a whole person. We're not just focusing on academics and their minds, right? Like, they are a spirit and a body. How do we nurture all of that? And so, yeah, and I love focusing on this first, cause I really...before we dig into, like, the how and the specifics of what you actually do, I feel like...and just in general, on homeschooling, right? We can become very focused on the how, but if we don't understand the why behind it, it really isn't...things that are hard, right? And...yeah.

D -

Then it's a system and it's not this beautiful philosophy that we're implementing. And we shouldn't be realistic about it at all.

J -

Right. So, the benefits of this Swedish Drill, from what I'm hearing, is, you know, it does develop the good habits. Obedience, accuracy, promptness. It develops someone's courage, like that hero training aspect, it develops and then a need and a desire to take care of their physical bodies and be good stewards of what they're given. Is that kinda hittin' on the main ones there? Yeah.

D -

Yeah.

J -

Okay.

D -

Absolutely.

J -

So let's, then, transition and talk about specifically, then, what do we do come Monday at home in the Swedish Drill lesson?

D -

Okay. I do wanna talk about that, but I wanna hit on one other thing you mentioned first... those are still of value. And those are still something that students in Charlotte Mason schools did. But, and me, as a former collegiate athlete, obviously, I feel very strongly about sports. I see a lot of benefit in them, but...

J -

Oh, for sure. Yeah.

D -

Even though they're excellent. They're, in them, certain...if you repeated...just like when we repeatedly sitting at our desks, and typing on the computer, or writing, or reading our book curled up in the couch. Just as those repetitive movement patterns lead to changes in our bodies that take us away from optimal physical health. Specifically by altering our body alignment, which was created by God for a very specific purpose, because it was a way to maintain health for a long period of time. When we're playing games...I played volleyball. I'm right hand dominant. I definitely overdeveloped my right upper body with all of the hitting and blocking that I did. And that requires exercises to then correct otherwise it leads to injury. And that's why Swedish Drill was added into the mix. It was to develop both sides of the body and front and back of the body equally, to offset some of those other activities that were creating dominance in one particular area. So I just needed to...I just wanted to address that since you had mentioned it.

J -

Yeah, and she does talk about games, and yeah, the importance of, you know, developing camaraderie and working together with people. Yeah, she talk about that in her volumes for sure, yeah. It's not like, those need to go away, right? But, again, yeah. Not being that...the dominant...I guess, what I'm trying to say, is like in schools, it's a more about how to play to games and the rules and those kinda things, and not on, like you said, developing our kind of our whole body, and focusing on our personal health as well. If it gets to be a great athlete, right, you do have to focus on working on yourself as well as the game and the rules and all the other aspects of the sport as well. As I'm sure you know.

D -

Exactly. Exactly.

J -

Yeah. That's a great point. Thank you for bringing that up and clarifying that. i appreciate that. So, yeah, okay.

D -

So, now you wanna talk about...?

J -

The nitty-gritty, girl, yeah.

D -

All right. So, when I first started to research Swedish Drill, my mindset was going through modern principles of health science. Does this still have value today? Are they presenting it faith-ly. Is there anything I can do to modify, based on things we've learned since this system was developed to make it even better for people? And does it still have value? And I found out that yes, it has a lot of value for the reasons we stated, but countering some of the negative effects that happen once we start becoming sedentary as we enter school. So, I went through the resources that I found at the time. There's a book called The Swedish Drill Teacher, and this is available through via Google Books as a download. It's in the public domain, by Spalding and Collette. And then later I found a book that was referenced on the PNEU time tables, for...are the programs for use by teachers. And it was produced by the Board of Education in 1909, and it's called The Syllabus of Physical Exercises. And so I went through all of the exercises presented, and most of them were similar in these two books, and I said, hey, they're not showing this one good. There's some issues with that. But I can modify it so that it will be effective in countering some of these physical issues that we need help with today. And so, I boiled it down, especially in the introductory routines that I created and which are available for free for people by going to After Thoughts, the blog, After Thoughts. I posted one, I believe, and entire routine, with videos, on hope to perform the exercises there.

J -

Yeah. I love that you did videos. Thank you for doing that. Cause I am directionally challenged. So, I read something, and be like, I don't know what that meant.

D -

Right, and so I was resistant to doing videos at first. But then, the more... when I was reading these books, and I do have a degree in exercise science, right? I find myself getting confused by just words too. And so, I wanted to make sure that I could rewrite the words so that they were simpler and give some sort of direction in the form visually. So I chose to use photos and videos in the products that I created, because most people tell me, even though I was resistant to it, that the videos are the way that they learn the best. And I have my two favorite models, my sons, as the models. Exercises. I will admit to something here on the air. My boys no longer do Swedish Drill because ??? to do it before being models for my products. So I instituted...last year, I started paying them for every ???

J -

Uh huh, yeah. Yeah, I do that with my kids sometimes too so, it's all good.

D -

They comply for a couple of months while they're learning it in routine, and then, they're like Mom, can we just go outside.

J -

Well, it's... that does speak to Charlotte Mason's philosophy of rewards and things too, so yeah.

D -

So, anyway. So, I wrote down some of these exercises into a basic introductory routine that I thought was within reach for parents to supervise, even if they didn't have the background in physical education that I have. So, I put out those movements that I thought might lead to not performing them properly, which could create problems down the road. Not by doing an exercise one time the wrong way, but merely by developing faulty movement patterns, which, as a physical therapist, is something that I figure it much to heart because I see that it leads to injury when we become older and it all related to misuse of our...not all, but a great majority is, I would say, 80%, due to misuse of our bodies in our youth. So I wanna develop something to empower parents to teach them proper movement patterns and counter some of these ill effects of all of the things that we do in front of our bodies that tighten everything upfront and weaken everything in the back. So Swedish Drill helps to correct that a little bit.




J -

Today's episode is brought to you by A Gentle Feast. A Gentle Feast is a complete curriculum for grades one through twelve that is family centered, inspired by Ms. Mason's programs and philosophy, and rooted in books, beauty, and Biblical Truth. You can find out smooth and easy days are closer than you think at AGentleFeast.com.




So, give me an example of what, like, a series would involve.

D -

Okay. So, the series...some of the...so Swedish Drill just like Mason's philosophy, has principles. And some of the principles are that each exercise has a very specific effect. All the exercises are progressive, and they're typically done in a certain order. Now, that's not meant to be very legalistically applied, like, oh, I can't use that exercise cause I haven't done one from the class before it first. But, generally, in the whole routine, it should include a representation of these various classes of exercises. And there are nine of them. And those exercises include, I have it written somewhere. I know it off the top of my head, but I wanted to be more systematic. They include... the first category is essentially a warm-up, which you would have in any exercise routine, right? And next is...I'm not gonna find it, so I'm gonna stop looking. The next category is what is called an arch flexion, or extension, so this is a bigger movement of the spine. So involving rounding, or extension of the spine. The next movement, I believe, is the heaves. Heaves have to do with opening up the arms really wide to try to stretch out the chest muscles, which tend to become the most tight through all of our activities we do in sitting or even when we're not sitting. Even when we're preparing a meal or doing laundry. How many times do you really reach behind your body during the course of the day?

J -

Right. Yeah. That's a great point.

D -

Right? Never. Unless you're reaching into the back seat to hand one of your kids...

J -

Or go, be quiet! Yeah.

D -

Or slappin' a leg, I've done that before. And so, those are...that forms a big part of it. There are also movements that develop balance. Movements that develop the musculature in the upper back, which is an important tonic for the overuse that we do with the muscles on the front of our bodies and specifically our chest region. And then there are movements for the core, for the abdomen, the low back, and the lateral. The oblique musculature. One thing that I kept out, that was considered a class, is leaping or jumping. Not that I think you should stop having your kids jump. Obviously, that's silly. But when you are doing exercises specifically focusing on jumping over and over and over again, if they're done with a faulty movement pattern, that could lead to injuries down the road. So, I did not want to put these exercises in the hands of families who maybe aren't just trained to look for position that their knees should be in respect to...so I just eliminated that category altogether, because I figured, younger kids are getting plenty of that in their outdoor play.

J -

Yeah, I was gonna say. Yeah, leaping and jumping is something we do...

D -

Right, all the time. And then breathing. Breathing is a cooldown, but also as something that kind of drives the movements to a specific breath pattern that happens as you're performing these exercises.

J -

Oh, that's neat. Yeah, that ties in...I mean, I do a lot of yoga, personally, and that breathing...

D -

Is a key element.

J -

Yes. Yeah, and we don't think of it a lot of times when we're exercising in other ways.

D-

Right. I've had people hold their breath. That's why...??? because it does focus on the... and so, Swedish Drill is very similar. It's very similar to Pilates through my training as well, and you'll see a lot of, in my Swedish Drill manuals, a lot of a Pilates influence comes out in that as well.

J -

I think that's great, especially, you know, you were saying, like, counteracting the effects of being sedentary. Well, I mean, our lives are way more sedentary than they were even in Charlotte Mason's time period. So, this is more valuable. And like you said, I mean, you said sitting in their desk around age five. Well, now there's two-year-olds, you know, sitting at a desk, so it's becoming something that we're doing even younger than before. So, we're not getting that large gross motor development.

D -

Exactly.

J -

They need at that age. And we really, they can really develop really poor patterns of sitting. But also it affects their ability to learn, I would think, by, yeah, our bodies and our minds are so connected.

D -

Absolutely. Oh, and that's so... earlier on, you said how...you asked how I got into this and I told you I was experienced...experimenting with my oldest, and I found that everything we did increased adrenaline levels. Well, after we started doing Swedish Drill, because it does involve the mind, but not in a fatiguing manner, but you do have to be paying attention. You have to be very focused, observant, you have to listen and be attentive to what the instructor is about to tell you to do, otherwise you're not gonna do it correctly. So, because the mind was so engaged, it was a beautiful transition between one lesson and another without causing that adrenaline increase. It literally led my son to being able to focus more on the lesson when previously, he had been kind of losing his focus. And kind of applying the mind use without overtaxing physically the body. Because this is not a vigorous, this is definitely not intended to replace vigorous play, cardiovascular exercises. This does not include that element and that is so important for all of us to get. But, it's as valuable as corrective exercises to what we do with our bodies throughout much of the day.

J -

So, basically, a parent would go through the series, they are calling out an instruction, and then their child does that movement? And then they move on to the next one? Is that how it works?

D-

Yes. And so there are two...so, the way I like to introduce families to Swedish Drill, and the Swedish Drill lesson could last anywhere from five minutes to thirty minutes, is your aim is to perform a complete Drill, but before you begin...I mean, when you're just beginning, obviously you haven't learned all the exercises to put into a complete long drill format, which could take several minutes long. So, your first few lessons are including, in fact, on Brandy's blog, and I include this in my first manual too, Swedish Drill Revisited, I include a transitional routine that I created for my boys. When they were first learning, they were six and three years old. And it took them through the positions. But I will be calling them into when we started to learn official exercises. And I like, I'm sorry, parents to start there, teaching them the basic positions of attention, standing tall. There's a position called half kneeling, where you're down on one knee, but the other foot is up as if you're in a lunge position. That's compared with something called tall kneeling, where both knees are on the floor. We teach them to lie on their stomach on the floor, to lie on their back on the floor, to do something called lawn sitting, where you're sitting up straight, but your knees are...your legs are extended in front of you. So, I created this routine that had them running through all of these positions, and we would use that as our warm-up before we started to teach specific exercises.

And the specific exercises have to be mastered before you put them into a full drill routine format. Once you do a drill routine, you...the expectation is that they have been mastered. That's not the time to have to prompt them or correct them. They should be able to do it to your command at that point. So, essentially, what a movement would look like, involves the instructor giving an explanatory portion of the command, pausing, which allows the student who has been introduced to this movement before, time to visualize what that movement looks like, what they're being asked to do. But then, not executing it, that movement, until they hear the word of command from the instructor. And each exercise has its own particular command.

So, if I were starting out with children who had learned the transitional routine, I would do the transitional routine with them as a warm-up, and then I'll say, okay, today we're going to learn two more exercises. So, the first exercise we're going to learn is called arms across bend. And this is what it's going to look like. And so, arms across bend is an exercise where you're starting at attention with their stands by your sides. Arms across bend looks like you're bringing your elbows up shoulder height, out to your sides, but your hands come across in front of your chest. That's something you can visualize. But, so, then I show them what it's going to look like. I say this is what arms across bend looks like. And I'll demonstrate it to them and I'll ask them to do it, and I'll come around and say, oh, your elbows, you're shrugging your shoulders a little too much, so I might touch their shoulder and say no, try to keep this relaxed. Or, you're not lifting your elbows high enough. Let me help you. This is what it feels like. So, I get them to feel what it's supposed to feel like first, and then I break it down and I say, okay, that's what the movement is going to look like when you're doing it. This is what we're going to do in the drill to get you to...this is going to be my prompt for you to remember you're going to do this movement. And so, I'll say then, arms across bend. And then I'll pause. So they just learned arms across bend. They know what it looks like. And then I'll give the cue. Bend. And so they lift their arms up when I say one, and they put 'em back down when I say two. And I'll keep counting, one, two, one, two. And so they learn to wait for me to say one before they lift their arms up. They wait for me to say two before they put their arms down. And then we'll move on to something else. Like head-turning is something that you might be able to visual...it's a warm-up exercise, it's not...but you can visualize this, probably, a little better than arms across bend. So, I'll get them to turn their heads to the left and to the right, but then I'll prompt them that they have to wait after I say head-turning, for me to give the next command. Then I'll say head to the left. They won't turn their head to the left yet, until I say, turn. Head to the right. Turn. And then, once they've gotten the hang of this, then, I'll give the same command twice in a row, so they can't turn their head to the right twice in a row, right, unless they're... So, that just prompts them to remember that they have to wait until I give the command. If they anticipate what you're going to say, then part of the value of this is lost in terms of the habits it's trying to perform. The physical element is still there, but if we're trying to cultivate attentiveness, perfect execution, observation, good listening skills, when they have to wait for the command to be given before they do it.

J -

Yeah, yeah. I could definitely see how that would really help with focus.

D -

Yeah.

J -

Yeah. And giving their brains that opportunity to, yeah, to really hone in on following directions and yeah, that would give them that break in terms of, you know, what they were studying too, that their brain would be used in a different way. And then they can go back to whatever it is, like you were saying, like it would help your son kinda focus more, because it's developing that habit rather than just free play or running around or, yeah. Something like that, that wouldn't have that effect. Are there movements that work out, like, the bilateral stimulation?

D -

Yes. So I did not include as many in the first volume, because I wanted to focus more on simplicity. And...I have something that I wanted to say on this point, but starting on the second manual, and I just produced my fourth, so I have four...

J -

Okay, oh wow. Okay.

D -

...that are progressive in nature. I don't think it's available on the website yet because we're having some issues, but it should be up very soon. But crossing midline is very critical for brain development. There are some that will say there's a paucity of research that proves that, but the majority of us working in...

J -

Anecdotally, yeah, right.

D -

Right. There's a little rehab will tell you that there's a lot and basically...the strongest actually, I remember this so clearly, the strongest push I had for this idea of cross-lateral movement and crossing the midline, so for those of you who don't' know what we're talking about, the midline...

J -

Yeah. Thank you.

D -

Just imagine you've got something at the tip of your head down to between your feet, that's separating your body in two halves. Crossing the midline would be, for example, taking your right hand and touching your left elbow. Or taking your right hand and touching your left knee. So you have crossed the midline, and what that does is it encourages both sides of your brain to communicate via something that is between them, physically, in your head, under your skull, called the corpus callosum. and it's a bridge between the right and left sides of the brain that can be developed, strengthened like a muscle if you will. And the strongest, and I never was able to get in contact with this doctor to provide me with the research that he shared with us, but, my child's, my son's first pediatrician...we lived in Salt Lake City when he was born, but we only lived there for three months, and my time with this man was short. But he told me, early on, that, if your child starts to walk before he has been crawling for, what did he say, five months. Then you sit him back down and you don't let him try to walk, because we want to encourage that cross-lateral reciprocal movement that encourages the development of the corpus callosum before we allow him to do something that relies less on the corpus callosum. So, it's very compelling. I wish that I had his research to back it up. But he was so passionate about it. And he told me, well before my child, you know...we were only there three months, so he had to be at, like, two months old that he instructed me in this.

But anyway, so yes. So in Swedish Drill I had been very mindful with the adaptations I've made to the original to include movements that will cross the midline to try and encourage that. Those start to show up even more so in the latest manual that I developed, which is a definite progression because it's focuses even more on moving gross motor patterns as opposed to stabilizing body parts, which was the case in the first three manuals. So they're definitely not for the faint of heart and they're more advanced and definitely not something someone should jump into right away. But in nearly every exercise, I have some element of crossing midline, because those types of movements actually mimic more what we do in our daily lives.

We have three planes of movement. We can move in a straight, forward-and-back manner. We can move in a straight out-and-in, side to side manner. And we can move in a rotational manner, like when we twist to look over our shoulder when we're driving. That involves rotation of the spine, right? But there...so many exercise programs focus...like weight lifting specifically, on just doing things in one plane. Just bending and straightening our elbows as we're lifting weights. Just pushing a weight off of our chest and back again, right? That's occurring in one plane. But life doesn't happen in one plane.

J -

Right. Yeah.

D -

Life occurs in all three planes at once, and when you cross the midline, you introduce some rotation, some forward and backward movement, and some side to side movement. So in that sense, not only are they encouraging development of the corpus callosum, the bridge in your brain, but they're also mimicking your life movements. That's why I wanted to take it there in Swedish Drill.

J -

Yeah. Kinda that functional exercise piece.

D -

Exactly.

J -

Yeah, the reason I asked about the bilateral stimulation is for my daughter, who has ADHD and sensory processing. Like, that's something we did incorporated a lot of those kind of movements already into our homeschool day, just to help her focus and have definitely seen a difference on doing some of those before we get started with our lessons for the day.

D -

That's wonderful. There's lots of ways...I don't know if you do resources like brain gym or, what are some of the other resources? But those...I went to lots of those types of resources in developing my most recent, and my last one as well.

J -

Look at that. Yeah, and you talked about, you know, some of the exercises focusing on balance and that's really important with the kind of sensory issues that she had as well. So, yeah. And continual research, right, just continues to show the benefits of all these on academic quality as well as just...

D -

Absolutely. Absolutely. So it's all the more...almost prophetic when you look at what Charlotte Mason proposed this form of physical education and the fact that it was so dominant in the day, and to see it come to play, to bear, even now, in terms of medical research, it's really quite exciting.

J -

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. She's way ahead of her time for sure. So, how can parents start to incorporate this? Like, how should they put it in their schedule? I know you wanna talk about your resources are a great place to start. So, kind of add this in. Other, is it, keep going? Like, you had mentioned that your boys, you know, they're getting older. Like, is it, was it something she included up through high school, or what do they start to do different kinds of physical education the older they got as well?

D -

So, it looks...so my boys, technically, are still at the age where they should be doing it. I'm just saying, for... I was being honest that there's not very much anymore, because of the burden, I think they felt of having me create the product. They would still very much benefit from it, and even up into early high school. In fact, I run a community where we meet and I have children from seven through sixteen that are all doing Swedish Drill together. So, yeah.

J -

That's cool. I think people could do in their co-ops and things.

D -

Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Absolutely. So, it is valuable. But, she did switch to more in the upper years, the older years, high school in particular, when it was, when the boys were going off to public school and she'd ??? with her girls. We're doing more things like folk dancing and other things, and less Swedish Drill. But it is still definitely of value. So, the question is, how can parents, how can the listeners to your program, start to implement Swedish Drill into their homeschools. Obviously, I did create a product, and that is there and available, but it is also why I created the three videos and version that's available on After Thoughts too. Because I don't want you to feel like you have to go buy a product that you don't know much about and you don't think...you're not sure if it's a good investment for your homeschool. So, I would go to the After Thoughts blog, and I could help you locate the links, Julie, to all of my articles on Swedish Drill, and specifically, the ones with videos, which is in essence, the first of the two routines that I have in my first manual. So, essentially, half of my first product that I sell is available for free.

J -

Okay, great. Yeah, so they could try it and kinda see, oh...

D -

Exactly. Exactly. And then if you're interested and you wanna do more, you could purchase the Swedish Drill Revisited, and like I said, I just published the fourth version of it. And it all includes front matter that talks about the history that we discussed earlier in the program but going into a little more detail. And also, there are some plans for marching, which works really well in a co-op too.

J -

Oh, yeah.

D -

That was in the third volume that I published last year. And then, in the one that I produced this year too, I did create something that gives a cardio option that is not something that I would recommend doing in between lessons because of...the increased adrenaline-pumping effect. But, I pulled on my experience as a collegiate athlete and as a strength and conditioning coach, doing some activities to try and improve athleticism generally. That could be formed into a cardiovascular routine, and that's mostly what my boys have been, and I, have been doing, maybe, over the lunch break, but before they have plenty of time to calm back down before we start.

J -

So, is there a certain time that you would recommend, like, parents adding Swedish Drill into the day?

D -

I know that there are lots of people that work on a strict time schedule. I don't know if that's the case necessarily for your audience. I personally don't have this physical education block in a strict location. I use my children's cues. Are...

J -

Yeah, are we ready for this? Right.

D -

That's when I pull out Swedish Drill and I'll...

J -

That's great. Yeah.

D -

...I used to, when the boys were still more amenable to it, I'd just blow a whistle to call my older son from downstairs while I was working with the little one, and they'd go to attention, and we'd do five minutes. And then they were ready to get back into it and they did a great job.

J -

Yeah, I like that approach. Yeah.

D -

Refocusing. So I would say, wherever your...it is mind work, but it's less taxing mind work, so between lessons, where your child really had to give a huge mind effort and needs a little break, by doing some physical activity. But the mind work involved in Swedish Drill is not nearly as taxing.

J -

Yeah. For sure.

D -

It doesn't feel like you're using your mind as much with it.

J -

Right. Yeah. So are there any, like, restrictions or cautions for using this with anybody?

D -

So...I don't like...I don't recommend it being started too early. With students, I would not start...I did start it with my youngest son when he was about three and a half, but I did it incidentally. I was not teaching him. He just picked up on what I was...

J -

Yeah, right. He wants to see what everyone else is doing. Yeah.

D -

So, you have to make a decision, early on, if you're going to implement it in your school, and you want your younger kids to be involved, you have to say, I'm not gonna...they don't have to perfectly execute this.

J -

Right. That's a good point.

D -

They're not at a physical maturity level yet, where they could do it.

J -

Right. Mimicking the motions of siblings, kind of. Yeah. Okay. I get you.

D-

But I would definitely...I just received an email. Someone asking me if they could implement it with a toddler and I said no. That's too young. If your toddler's following along with a middle school student, I've gotten lots of pictures of people sending me adorable babies doing Swedish Drill. So I've...and then actually consulted and talked with some people...one woman had a child with mild cerebral palsy, who had physical issues with not being able to hold their feet flat on the floor. And then...so obviously, their body alignment issues are off, so we talked about whether or not some things would be appropriate or some would not. I haven't found any one child where you couldn't at least adapt. With...so I can't say for sure, but I do, obviously, recommend, if you have some concerns that you would talk, show the program to a doctor and say, hey, do you think this would be something that we could safely do at home?

J -

Yeah. Yeah. That's great advice, and I do value...yeah, but, not correcting the younger children and, or starting it too soon. I think that it's a really good point. So I'm glad you brought that up. But also, I feel like, especially with all this quarantine thing that's happening, you know? Like adding...like this, and yeah, I'm just focusing on their physical exercise as well. It's really key during this time as well. Just for mental health benefits.

D -

Absolutely.

J -

As well, so. Do you have any last words or do you have a quote that is related to this that you would like to share at the end?

D -

I have lots of quotes. But I'm not gonna share a lot with you, and I won't read them all to you again. So, no, I have nothing else to add. This is just really enjoyable. I hope that people become more interested in Swedish Drill, and if they have any questions, please, I have a contact form on my website, which is SwedishDrill.com. And I love to answer any questions you have about that. I've worked with lots of people that are trying to implement it into Charlotte Mason co-ops and worked with them on fine-tuning their plans and reviewing their plans. And I'm happy to do that. So if you have any questions or concerns, whatsoever, I am more than happy to address them. Just...

J -

Aww, that's so sweet.

D -

Shoot me an email.

J -

Yeah, so, yeah, I will definitely link to this in the show notes with the After Thoughts blog, is where you have some of the free lessons and the videos for people that kinda get their feet wet and see what they think. And then, SwedishDrill.com is where they can contact you, but also, view, like, the full kinda program. Is that correct?

D -

Right. And actually, yes. And actually, I do sell my product through After Thoughts, as well.

J -

Oh, you do? Okay, okay.

D -

So, it's just there in the store. But you can click on my website to access the store if you're not already on After Thoughts.

J -

Well, thank you so much for talking with me today, Dawn, I really appreciate it. That was fascinating, and I know our listeners will really get a lot out of this as well. So, thank you for your time.

D -

Well, thank you too.




J -

Thank you for joining us today on The Charlotte Mason Show. I'm your host, Julie Ross, and I would love to meet you in person. All of the Great Homeschool Conventions have been rescheduled to 2021. Go to GreatHomeschoolConventions.com to find a convention near you.

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Thanks for joining me today. Until next time, may your home be filled with books, beauty, and Biblical truth.


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