If you've designed a high school PE course

[Miss Marple]

what did it look like? I'm considering adding at least a .5 credit (1 semester course) for my boys next year. We are finishing the Physical Fitness merit badge for Boy Scouts so they have some basic fitness concepts. They have done ballroom dance as well as other BSA merit badges which might fall under PE (rifle, shotgun, canoeing, etc.). Many of the sports we did in high school PE required teams which will be difficult to replicate at home.

 

What type of things were you able to include in a PE course at home?

[TravelingChris]

My rules for PE are counting hours of sports or physical fitness (or being on a sports team) and getting CPR and first aid courses done. I never had a problem with any of my kids- oldest was combination of soccer team and boy scout fitness badges (hiking, biking, etc). Middle was combinations of soccer camp, archery, sailing camp, biking, swimming, snorkeling, and a fitness regimen of running, strength exercises, and stretching. THe youngest has soccer and swim and dive teams plus biking, tennis, and hiking.

[Brilliant]

My dd has always taken dance classes for several hours a week.

 

My ds has a gym membership and we try to get him there 2-3x/week. He is physically fit, and with the additional walking/hiking/other outdoor activities we do, I am comfortable giving him a full PE credit for the amount of exercise he does.

 

For anybody who has a 24-hr Fitness location convenient to you - Costco offers a great deal of $299 for a 2-year membership. That comes to $12.50/month!

[Brindee]

In the past DD has done gymnastics, swimming and horse-riding lessons. This years she's not doing any of those. She spends 30 min - 1 hour a day jogging, walking, aerobic exercises, stretching, Wii Fit, once in awhile ice-skating, etc. to get the hours in.

 

This summer a Y is opening up nearby, so at least she and I will join and she'll probably do swimming lessons again as well.

[Susan C.]

We just count hours of physical activity. 90 hours is one semester, 180 hours is one year credit.

 

This is more than PE class at school which includes getting suited up, roll call, then at the end, changing and showering.

 

Dd has done ballroom dancing, and does yoga, pilates, etc. We also walk together.

[TechWife]

We are finishing the Physical Fitness merit badge for Boy Scouts so they have some basic fitness concepts. They have done ballroom dance as well as other BSA merit badges which might fall under PE (rifle, shotgun, canoeing, etc.).

 

I was actually going to suggest picking a couple of BSA merit badges. I think one or two of them, depending on which ones, would be sufficient if all requirements were met.

 

The bicycling merit badge is particularly rigorous (and counts towards Eagle).

[Hunter]

I picked a sport for each month. I got some library books on the sport and looked for drills in them that were appropriate for my son to practice independantly.

 

We tend to only think about PLAYING the game and forget that anyone serious about any sport spends time working on certain skills that they practice alone.

 

I would have my son also learn the rules and watch a game being played, but the focus was on practicing the drills. Sometimes I required a report on the sport.

 

He also had a chart to work on stretches and cardiovascular fitness that didn't change from month to month. You could also require a short report on a muscle, or a longer report on cardiovascular health.

 

My son was not involved in any extracurricular activities, but had a full credit worth of PE every year. He was a very sedentary child and needed the movement and structure of a full PE program.

 

My older son was working so many hours I just left him alone. He was highly motivated to become financially independant at the youngest age possible and to escape the unhappy situation in our home and I supported him in that. Manual labor and lots of it, is a good substitute for PE in my opinion, if it includes lots of exercise and teamwork.