As a family we have now settled into the daily rhythms of home schooling. It is like the mid-point of a horserace, everyone is going well, no one is off the bridle and it is difficult to call the winner.

So now it is the fitness of my children to which I have turned my attention. That, I am discovering, has to be tailored to age and character.

One forgets what a great place school is for staying fit without realising it; the football game in break, running to lunch, using the climbing frame, walking between classes and games of tag quite apart from afternoons full of organised games. That is what they are missing.

I do not personally count normal horse riding as exercise any more than I would consider sitting on an arm chair a workout but my golden rule about each child having their own pony is that they must ride them.

That, of course, is not always possible on schooldays, particularly in winter. But it was their collective idea rather than the sergeant-major in me that an early morning ride would be a good way to set them up mentally for school so we are on board by 7.00 and, generally, it works.

But the nine-year-old fell off the other day and, tearfully, said she had banged her head so, to make it like the proper races, we concocted an impromptu concussion test.

What day of the week is it (after six weeks of lockdown even I had to think twice about the answer)? Monday. Correct. How many chicks did the bantam (very much her department) have? Four. Correct.

Am I holding up my left hand or my right hand? Left. Wrong. But rather than concussion, according to her siblings, it turns out left and right is not one of her strong points.

I have no worries about the middle ones fitness. She wants to be a jockey and has built her own gym in a disused bullpen in an old farmyard and would give most apprentices a run for their money on a bleep test.

It is, however, my 15-year-old son in the slough of his teenage years (conversation is reduced to a series of half-syllable grunts, sleeps for England, picks at delicious dinner before gorging on three rounds of toast, says lifes so unfair when he is summoned off Fortnite) who gives me most cause for concern.

With one of the longer run-ups in Oxfordshire schoolboy cricket every over not bowled this summer is roughly 150 m not run. At roughly 25 overs a week, chuck in a few quick singles, that is nearly four kilometres he would normally have, to quote the youngest, sprant.

More:

From alarm calls to cricket on the lawn, keeping children fit in lockdown is a fine art - Telegraph.co.uk