It’s been a crazy time around here.  There’s a lot going on here behind the scenes, both in my personal life (back to school for the next stage of that journey!) and professionally/blog-wise.  I have some exciting projects in the works, including a new, updated homemaking binder kit, and a healthy living course that’s under construction.

The net result is a stack of review books a mile high, and not a lot of extra time to work on non-review posts.  So I apologize in advance for the imbalance you’ll probably see over the next few months, as I work my way through a number of reviews, building the content for that course in the background, and trying not to fail any classes.  Y’all pray nothing blows up in the meantime, okay? 😉

This week I have three reviews for you of online courses/tools for learning that complement our children’s regular schooling.  (Homeschoolers, especially, will appreciate these, but you don’t have to be a homeschooler to benefit.)  A couple of these are courses we’ve been working through for a while, and one is a pretty new service we discovered.

Fit2B Girls Course

Full disclosure: I’m an affiliate for Fit2B, and was offered the opportunity to try this course free and review it, when it came out a little over a month ago.  In case you’re not familiar with Fit2B, what they do (primarily) is offer online workouts, with a particular emphasis on making them tummy-friendly so they don’t aggravate diastasis recti if that’s an issue.  (This is a separation of the abdominal muscles that’s pretty common in women who have had babies.)  This new course is a bit different, though.

Fit2B Girls is a course designed to educate girls — particularly in the “tween” age range — about their bodies.  It does cover the things you’d probably assume it does, but it also does much more than that.  The whole thing is respectful and honoring, and stays age-appropriate.

Fit2B Girls Course Modules

Modules in the course cover fitness & alignment, eating healthy, becoming unstoppable (about thoughts & emotions), fashion & beauty, female anatomy, bladder & bowel health, sports & periods, charting your cycle, period products, period pain relief, the first GYN visit, and confident core (about strong core muscles).

As you can see, this is much more well-rounded than just “what is your period?”!  And I like that it leans a little “crunchy”/holistic, with discussions of nutritious whole foods, coverage of cloth menstrual products, etc.  A lot of moms will probably appreciate some of this information, as well, since often our own body education is a bit weak.

Not every detail is to my taste.  There were a few “information” details I disagreed with.  They’re fairly minor, overall, but they were important enough that I’ve talked them over with my girls.  The “eating healthy” module is done by Katie Kimball, and she is by no means fat-phobic; however she does make reference to unsaturated fat being “not the healthiest” fat, which I find unnecessary/misleading.  The fashion & beauty expert emphasizes sunscreen in the skin care module, and the bladder & bowel health expert refers to every-three-days bowel movements as “normal” for some people, neither of which I agree with.  (Three days may be “common”-normal, but it’s most definitely not “healthy”-normal!)

The only other “quibble” I had isn’t really even a “quibble,” exactly.  I just have different preferences in my approach to fashion and makeup, so that module is not a favorite for me.

These are pretty small details, though, in the overall scheme of things.  The content is overwhelmingly good and positive and useful, and broadly helpful.  I love that it helps our girls to see their bodies in a positive light, and to understand how they work and how to make/keep them strong and healthy.

I was initially a little surprised to see that the “first GYN visit” is taught by a man.  (It’s the only one.)  But this Certified Nurse Midwife has a fabulous calm, matter-of-fact manner about him, and I found it quite comfortable to hear him talk to the girls about this subject.

Fit2B Girls Course Delivery

The course is hosted on the Fit2B website.  Once you log in (after purchase), you’ll find it in the drop-down menu at the top of their page.  Having opened up the course, you’ll find the modules listed down the right side of the page, so you can click on whichever one you want.

I recommend (you, the parent) watching the “guide notes from Beth” first, to get a sense of how the course is set up, but after that you can view the modules in any order.  Some will obviously follow each other in a more logical order, while others are not directly connected to one another.  We’ve jumped around a little bit, but viewed, for instance female anatomy, charting your cycle, period products, and period pain relief in that order.

Each module is comprised of one or more videos, with the experts speaking directly to the girls.  Beth does many of the videos herself, but has brought in outside experts for certain topics.  They also have some text to read on the page (some more than others), and a few are designed to be interactive, with printables that accompany them.  Although this is not absolute, on average each module should take around 15-20 minutes to complete.  (The fashion & beauty module is a little longer, having sub-sections about makeup, clothing, fashion/dress codes, and skin care.)

They take no advanced prep (a huge plus in my book!)  Many of the sections would also be perfectly appropriate for younger siblings, as well.  Which ones should be fairly self-explanatory.  We’re having siblings sit in, for instance, on bladder & bowel health (they happened to be studying the urinary system already, so that’s a pretty cool intersection of materials), and eating healthy (which fits right in with the cooking course we’re currently all doing together).

This is, in my opinion, an excellent addition to the health curriculum for homeschoolers and probably a key rounding-out of body education for girls who are in conventional schools (if what I learned, and what most women I know learned, in school is any indication).