I’m sure most of us remember going to PE or gym class in high school. My memories include wearing an unattractive PE uniform, the awkwardness of changing in the locker room with dozens of other teenage girls, and participating in sports that I was not interested in. I always hoped my school schedule had PE as the last class. I didn’t want to endure being sweaty and smelly throughout the school day. I am pretty sure that my husband’s memories of PE class were a little more positive. I guess he enjoyed the physical activity without caring about how he smelled.
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Whatever experience you had with gym class, the reality is that your homeschooled high schooler isn’t going to have those same experiences. You need to figure out another way for them to get their physical education credits.
I’m not an expert on the requirements for every state. I do know that California currently requires public school kids to have 2 years or 2 credits of physical education. What do homeschoolers need to do to get 2 years of physical education credits? Let’s take a look.
How many hours of physical activity are need for one semester?
HSLDA recommends that high school students put in 120 to 180 hours of school work for a 1 credit (1 year) course. Let’s take the average and say that we are going to require 150 hours of physical activity to earn 1 credit of physical education. Now there is no need to be legalistic about the hours. If your student logs anywhere between 120 to 180 hours of activity then count it as 1 credit.
Since the goal of PE should really be to create a lifelong love for physical fitness, high school students can spread their 2 years of credits over the course of their 4 years of high school. This would mean that they earn 1/2 credit each year (for 4 years) by completing around 75 hours of physical activity each year.
To help keep track of my high schoolers hours, I created a Physical Education Log sheet. I am making it available to you for free. Just scroll down to grab your PE log.
What activities count for physical education?
You know how many hours your student should be exercising, but what actually counts for PE credits? If your student is on a sports team or involved in other sporting activities then you can count all those hours of practice and games towards their PE hours. Really, any sport or physical training can count as physical activity. Here is a list of suggestions.
Hopefully, you can find an activity that your student enjoys. Remember that the real goal isn’t to complete hours and earn credits but to develop healthy habits of fitness that will last a lifetime.
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On the transcript for PE, do I put a grade or just put in “Pass”? I live in Ca.
You can do it either way. I did Pass/Fail since I didn’t do any type of testing or other evaluation. I only kept track of their hours of physical activity.