I don’t know about you, but I took PE/Health in 9th grade public school and it was a less than stellar experience.
It was taught by the football coach, co-ed, and it was pretty embarrassing for all involved.
How do homeschoolers meet the requirements for high school health credit?
What are the requirements for a health class?
Check for state requirements for health education.
I prefer to go above and beyond and max out requirements. We also never know where we might be living since the Air Force moves us around pretty often. Some states require only a 0.5 credit health course, while other states want a full 1.0 credit for graduation.
What’s a credit?
18 weeks = 0.5 credit
36 weeks= 1 credit
135-150 hours of coursework = 1 credit
What should be included in a health course?
A 0.5 credit health course should cover: developing a healthy self, substance-abuse prevention, human development, relationships, disease prevention, HIV/AIDS education, CPR and safety, consumer health, injury/violence prevention, nutrition, fitness, and community health.
A 1.0 credit health course includes everything in the course above and should cover: developing healthy sun exposure habits, acquiring knowledge and skills to practice healthy habits that prevent and/or control disease, learning positive tactics to avoid drug use, and learning healthy eating strategies.
Since we maintain a lifestyle of learning, most of these concepts are review for my teens in high school.
How do I teach health?
Sure, you can buy a traditional textbook health curriculum. Lots of those all-in-one companies include health in their package. If that’s the route you’re going, move along. I refuse to buy a textbook or workbook for something that should be a basic life skill. The library has lots of great resources!
Collect current events articles from newspapers, magazines, online and discuss or research to learn more.
Personal Health:
Study to include human anatomy and physiology, physical fitness, nutrition. We review our chemical-free lifestyle and recipes for personal care products. My daughter took a separate psychology course, so many coinciding health and development topics are covered in that.
Disease Prevention:
We love the links on the CDC and NIH websites.
Drug awareness:
Study to include information and avoidance of illicit drugs, smoking, and alcohol. This offers a great time to discuss peer pressure and self-control. The Bible offers instruction on excessive alcohol consumption. This is a great ministry opportunity for pray or volunteer participation. Also, address marijuana and CBD issues.
Fire safety:
Learn about what to do in the event of household fires, review a fire evacuation plan, learn how to use a fire extinguisher. I like these safety tip sheets. Check out this fire safety guide.
Household safety:
How should cleaning supplies, food items, and toxic items be handled and stored? How do we handle accidents or emergencies?
Basic First Aid:
Minor medical emergencies, to include burns, bleeding, choking, poison, injury, shock. My daughter completed certification courses through the Red Cross. They offer great babysitting and CPR courses.
Consumer Health:
Learn about health care programs around the world. Visit and/or volunteer at a crisis pregnancy center. Learn about propaganda, marketing, drug company lobbying. Really find out where our food comes from. There are great videos available like Food, Inc., Super Size Me, Captivated, Fed Up, and more.
Relationships:
We discuss courtesy, manners, etiquette, friendship, peer pressure, gossip, bullying, dating. We do role playing and review social situations that are successful or unpleasant. The book How Rude! is a great resource for etiquette.
Sex Ed:
This is a touchy subject, but a super important one.
- Human Development (including reproduction, puberty, sexual orientation, and gender identity)
- Relationships (including families, friendships, romantic relationships and dating)
- Personal Skills (including communication, negotiation, and decision-making)
- Sexual Behavior (including abstinence and sexuality throughout life)
- Sexual Health (including sexually transmitted diseases, contraception, and pregnancy)
- Society and Culture (including gender roles, diversity, and sexuality in the media)
My Sex Ed Series:
- Teaching About Healthy Relationships
- Is it Time for The Talk?
- Having The Talk
- Relationships
- Making Sense of It Book Review
- Why I Don’t Teach Purity
Download a great free sex-ed curriculum here.
See my favorite books for life skills.
I like the links and resources at All in One High School Health for guidance.
Civil Air Patrol has monthly safety briefings that cover many of the topics in health courses. We discuss the presentations at home afterwards.
My daughter volunteers two days per week at our local hospital with The Red Cross.
She’s volunteered every Monday in the medical laboratory for over a year. She likes microbiology and virology.
Recently, she’s been volunteering in the maternity ward and has assisted nurses, doctors, and technicians with hearing screenings, taking vitals, circumcisions, and more.
I had not really thought of health class for high school. These are great idea; mostly things we cover now as we go through live but I could easily turn these into easy and fun lessons.
This is very helpful info. I hadn’t thought of pulling it all together myself and what should be taught.
Thanks!
Gena
I was so disappointed to find out our state requires 2 years at 1/2 credit for each for health. I pulled so much stuff from the internet and even bought paces to complete those credits. I’m so thankful we are finished with it. Thanks for sharing these tips with Thankful Thursdays.
This is wonderful info, for non-homeschoolers too! Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday! :)
Hi Jennifer! You have some really great tips for homeschooling! Thank you for linking up at Funtastic Friday and we hope to see you this week!
These are great ideas. You might want to contact your local Health Department for some of the public health content and the Fire Department for First Aid/CPR. Thanks for sharing your post at the Over the Moon Link Party.
Great idea! I’m sure this will be very helpful to other parents. Thank you for sharing this on the #HomeMattersParty
This was great, thank you for sharing. We have used parts of Easy Peasy throughout our lower grades and will be checking the resources you have listed. I also have some used textbooks that someone gave me along with a few other books and resources I have picked up over the years.