Three Ways to Teach Health in Homeschool High School

This week on Homeschool Highschool Podcast: Three Ways to Teach Health in Homeschool High School.

Three Ways to Teach Health in Homeschool High School

Do you remember Health class when you were in high school? Lots of us had forgettable classes and remembered little once we graduated. However, Health can be a meaningful course for our teens. As homeschooling parents, we can choose the way to teach Health that best fits our teens’ interests and needs…and helps prepare them for healthy adulthood!

As you know, most states require one-half or a full credit of Health for high school graduation requirements. There’s not ONE right way to earn that credit!

Let’s talk about three ways to teach Health

The beauty of homeschooling is that we can pick the right kind of learning process for our teens’ learning styles.

Log hours with useful life and health experiences

For some teens, the idea of doing Health in a textbook is going make their hair curl. Other teens are so busy with other academics that working in an intense Health credit will be difficult. Hands-on, practical learning might be the best way to earn a Health credit for these high schoolers.

Earning the Health credit by logging hours requires a little more work on mom pulling resources together. A few of our 7Sisters’ homeschool high schoolers earned their Health credits in this way. Some activities they logged hours for included:

• CPR classes
• Red Cross First Aid classes
• Co-op cooking and nutrition classes
• Mindfulness activities at our local umbrella school
• Videos and YouTubes on the human body and healthy lifestyle

Our teens needed a full credit of Health for their homeschool transcript. In our area, a full credit required 180 hours of educational experiences. This number varies by state. You can check HSLDA or your local department of education for your state’s credit requirements.

If your teen is earning the credit by logging hours, remember the adage:

If it isn’t written down on the log, it didn’t happen!

Use a textbook (there are good ones out there!)

There are lots of publishers that offer homeschool health curricula. However, when our teens were in high school, those who wanted to use a textbook insisted on a text with no busy work. That’s how 7Sisters’ High School Health for the Whole Person was created.

It is a downloadable PDF textbook in a no busy work format. While the textbook covers the scope and sequence for a good Health credit, each chapter is a few pages long. It covers only the material that needs to be covered for that topic:

• What they need to know
• How to recognize some issues if there are issues
• Some ways to take care of their body and mind

Interestingly, our teens wanted us to also include more on personal development in their textbook. Thus, the 7Sisters High School Health for the Whole Person has two sections.

• The first section is the physiological health
• Then, in the second part of the textbook, we covered mental, emotional, and social health
  • recognizing mood
  • how to live a healthy thought style
  • gratitude
  • self-awareness
  • depression and anxiety
  • ways to, to get help for that or to live a healthy lifestyle to help that feel better
  • friendship skills
  • helping a friend if they are concerned about a friend
  • drugs and alcohol

Homeschool high schoolers gain experience as a whole, healthy person: physical, emotional, and social. The text is not

Because we are all people of faith, the textbook is written through a Christian worldview. However, it’s not preachy.

Also, there are many states that will reimburse for curriculum. If you live in a state that reimburses and want to avail yourself of that, you must follow its guidelines for curriculum. Your curriculum must be non-religious.  That’s why 7Sisters also offers a version of the text that fits the reimbursement requirements: High School Health for the Whole Person (suitable for states that reimburse).

Courses for visual learners

Many homeschool high schoolers prefer to learn with the help of an online course. You can find live courses at online schools like our friends at FundaFunda Academy (who also bring us the Homeschooling with Technology podcast).

7Sisters offers an asynchronous (self-paced) online course that accompanies the High School Health for the Whole Person textbook.

The authors of High School Health for the Whole Person

The first part of the book covering the physiological parts of health was created by 7Sister Marilyn Groop, who is a physical therapist. Then, the second half of the text is taught by Vicki Tillman, who is a licensed professional counselor.

Remember

We are all in this homeschooling thing together. So, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact us info@7sistershomeschool.com, and even better, go to 7SistersHomeschool Facebook Group and share a question with the group. Many of the 7th Sisters (that’s everyone, because YOU are our 7th Sister) will share wisdom and experiences to help.

Also, don’t forget our 7 Sisters Homeschool YouTube channel!

Thank you to Seth Tillman for editing.

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