What kind of activities do you use for p.e. credit?

[mazakaal]

Ds has been doing tae kwon do twice a week. I assumed he'd keep it up through high school and was going to count that for his p.e. credit. He now says that he no longer enjoys it and wants to quit. He's not interested in any group sports that are offered here. When he was little, he was generally active like any kid, so I didn't worry about scheduling in p.e., but I know that for high school, he needs to do a certain number of hours a week for me to be able to put it on his transcript. Any creative ideas for activities that can count? All I can think of is running, cycling and swimming. The problem with swimming is that when we go to the pool, he doesn't really swim laps; he just messes around. So I don't know if I can really count it. And he's not particularly interested in running or cycling either.

[laughing lioness]

There are homeschoolers who regularly go ballroom dancing here (2x's a month) and play Ultimate Frisbee weekly April/May thru Oct depending on weather.

My ds also jogs regularly and does calisthenics with Dad.

[Lori D.]

I have couch potato boys, so this was potentially going to be a problem area for us. This was the point where I had to lay it out for in no uncertain terms for our DSs: this is high school, and you need to fulfill 2 PE credits. We will do 0.5 credit per year, which means 2 hours a week (or more), in 30 minute or longer increments, of sustained activity that gets the heart rate up. Sorry, but this is not about "fun outdoor activity (which is a great extra, and we're happy to hike or camp or mess around in the pool or whatever at other times). Just like all your high school classes have certain levels of requirements to them, the requirement for PE is about establishing a healthy discipline that is actually effective for your body. So, if you choose swimming, great! BUT, that means swimming actual laps with effort to get the heart rate up for a minimum of 30 minutes.

 

I found it helped to give our DSs options about what would be acceptable. It also helped to give them some input about checking off boxes about when in the week they wanted to do it. I also found it helped if I was doing it, too. I need to swim laps regularly, so I would say: "I will be going at this time this week to swim laps; you still need 2 hours of PE for this week; would you like to join me and knock off 30-45 minutes of your 2 hours, and see if you can beat me in number of laps?"

 

It also helped take me out of the picture of constantly nagging, when they had the hours check-off sheet in front of them and could decide how they were going to accomplish their hours: four 30-minute sessions, two 1-hour sessions or one 2-hour session a week.

 

 

Options we gave our DSs:

- play tennis as a family on the weekend

- do the Dance Revolution with the floor mat and x-box for 30 minutes straight

- briskly walk the dog with me in the morning for 30-45 minutes

- swim laps for 30-45 minutes

- weekly 90-minute ballroom dance class/practice with friends

 

They also played tennis with the local public high school team and enjoyed that; that was 5 days/week for 10 weeks in the spring.

 

We also counted the hours of an occasional big one-time event such as an all-day hike, or kayak trip.

 

 

Sometimes having a specific goal to work towards helps: check out the Congressional Award, and count the physical activity portion not only toward the Congressional Award, but also toward a PE credit.

 

How about DS committing and doing something weekly with a friend? Or, does he have an out-of-town facebook friend or penpal he could chart hours with -- they help hold each other accountable, compare times/distances/etc.?

 

What about joining a weekly homeschool group that does PE?

 

Weekly "pick up" basketball game at the local YMCA, school, or other?

 

If he's not a "team" kind-of guy, how about something like fencing? Tennis? Parkour (free running)? BMX biking? Urban dance (breakdancing, hip-hop)?

 

Our DSs loved playing 4-square, basketball (or basketball variations), and ultimate frisbee with at Youth Group. What about setting up something like that with regular with friends or other group DS is a part of?

 

Neither of our DSs likes running, but BOTH said that if they had the opportunity to participate in something like this "Run For Your Lives" event, they would go into training! ;) Could you find some big event DS would have fun being a part of, so the weekly training hours don't seem so dull, and there's a big "pay-off" at the end for having done it?

 

 

BEST of luck! Warmly, Lori D.

[regentrude]

My kids meet their PE requirement through hiking, backpacking, canoeing and rock climbing- all things we do together as a family.

[mazakaal]

Thanks for all the ideas. No homeschool p.e. classes here or scouting or anything, and he's already tried and rejected fencing, but I'll run the other ideas past him. Thanks.

[Brilliant]

Do you have a gym near you? We got a really reasonably-priced membership through Costco, and our ds has gone 2-3x/week for the last couple of years. That's only 2-3 hours a week, but I figured between the dog walking, family hikes, paintball, etc., he was active enough for a full credit.

[Chris in VA]

Does your state require a PE credit for homeschoolers? Does the college of choice require it?

We just made sure ds had regular exercise of some sort, for health reasons. He didn't have any PE on his transcript at all.

[Amy C]

Could you try some videos? My ds does Insanity with me, but we also do a few Bob Harper DVDs. We were able to get Bob Harper from the library to try it and then purchased each dvd for less than $10. You could try yoga, pilates, weights (light hand weights), etc.

 

Amy

[In The Great White North]

Does your state require a PE credit for homeschoolers? Does the college of choice require it?

We just made sure ds had regular exercise of some sort, for health reasons. He didn't have any PE on his transcript at all.

 

:iagree: No PE course/credit but he did have a high school team.

[Blue Hen]

DS doesn't like team sports, biking or running so for PE credit he snowboards in the winter with a homeschool ski club, is on an inline speed skating team and has also taken tennis lessons. A few times a year we'll go bowling and do some rather long hikes in the summer. On nice days he might speed skate about 15 or 20 miles through our neighborhood.

 

This past year DS took up shooting and is working his way through the NRA Markmanship Shooting program. He shoots about 4x a week and I consider this PE.

 

We don't track hours. I will put PE on DS transcript but I haven't seen our college of choice have that as a requirement. I'm with the previous poster--I encourage regular exercise. I also encourage DS to try different activities. That's how we rather stumbled upon the inline speed skating and the NRA shooting program.

[Rosie_0801]

I always suggest sword fighting, but we're that kind of family. :D

 

He may be able to do that through the SCA, archery too. There should be archery for people in normal clothes groups around too.

 

Rosie

[mazakaal]

Do you have a gym near you?

 

The gym near us is not reasonably priced. He wants to get some freeweights, though.

 

Does your state require a PE credit for homeschoolers?

 

There are no PE requirements in the UK, and we haven't figured out yet which college he will go to. I thought they all required at least a couple of PE credits.

 

Could you try some videos? My ds does Insanity with me, but we also do a few Bob Harper DVDs. We were able to get Bob Harper from the library to try it and then purchased each dvd for less than $10. You could try yoga, pilates, weights (light hand weights), etc.

 

I had thought of videos a while ago, but knew he wouldn't want to do your typical aerobics for middle age women video. ;) I'll check out Bob Harper. Thanks.

 

We have a Wii, but not Wii Fit. Maybe I can justify it as a homeschool investment. :D

[freerange]

You could look into the Duke of Edinburgh awards - http://www.dofe.org

 

Ask at your local pool about swimming badges. you can do distance, survival & lifesaving (the last is particularly useful as the bronze lifesaver can get you a job as a lifeguard)

 

Cricket, hockey, football, athletics, climbing, rugby...?

Edited October 27, 2011 by freerange
Wrong url

[Elinor Everywhere]

this is high school, and you need to fulfill 2 PE credits.

 

Lori,

 

Was this something you decided on for your own homeschool? AZ doesn't have a PE requirement, right? Or the big 3 universities here? Or did I miss that? :001_huh: I don't want to mess up the transcripts.

 

My daughter plays tennis 4-5 hours a week, and sails in the summer, so that would count. My son.....right now I have him running around our neighborhood every day for 30 minutes, not to fulfill a requirement but to burn off some of his boy-energy. :tongue_smilie:

[Lori D.]

Yes, a "mommy requirement", not a state requirement. :)

[Elinor Everywhere]

Yes, a "mommy requirement", not a state requirement. :)

 

Whew! I've looked at various websites to makes sure, and I was thinking, "How in the world did I miss that?" :D

[Jenny in Florida]

In Florida, homeschoolers don't actually have any requirements for P.E. (or much of anything else). However, if I end up needing to put it on my son's transcript for some reason, we'll just use his dance classes.

 

He takes one or two tap classes a week (varies a bit with the season) and has taken jazz and ballet at various times. Next month, he's joining the competitive ballet team. Between that and the tap, he'll have three or four hours most weeks, with extra hours for performances, competitions and any additional rehearsals specifically for those events. It should be plenty to carve out a credit for him.

 

If we didn't have dance available to us, we had also considered having him use the President's Challenge website to track hours and earn awards.

 

http://www.presidentschallenge.org/

[TheApprentice]

Maybe he'd be interested in joining a gym. My son actually wants to build his muscles, so that is probably what I'll do. And videos are a great idea, too. I don't know if you get "On Demand", but that have workouts available for free.

[SoCal Sandra]

otherwise it's tap dance and hip hop dance, as well as some team sports.

[elegantlion]

My ds is not into sports of any kind. I plan on requiring at least one credit of PE.

 

One will probably come from hiking with added nature study.

 

The other will come from our virtual walking tour of the world. I was inspired by a fellow board member, and it fits our budget. I outlined our goals in this blog post.

 

Basically we mapped a journey around the world. Each day we walk around our neighborhood we take miles off the trip. As we journey we're studying about our next destination.

 

So I'm sneaking in the PE with other studies added.

[Lori in MS]

Would shooting sports at 4 H count as P.E. or extracurricular? Also I think some of the hours can be academic, studying about a particular sport, etc.

[momofkhm]

Ds has been doing tae kwon do twice a week. I assumed he'd keep it up through high school and was going to count that for his p.e. credit. He now says that he no longer enjoys it and wants to quit. He's not interested in any group sports that are offered here. When he was little, he was generally active like any kid, so I didn't worry about scheduling in p.e., but I know that for high school, he needs to do a certain number of hours a week for me to be able to put it on his transcript. Any creative ideas for activities that can count? All I can think of is running, cycling and swimming. The problem with swimming is that when we go to the pool, he doesn't really swim laps; he just messes around. So I don't know if I can really count it. And he's not particularly interested in running or cycling either.

 

Well, what we do won't especially help you since he doesn't like group sports. Both girls play soccer 2 seasons a school year. If I can also get some sort of health class at the co-op, I cobble all that together for a PE credit. It doesn't have to be a health class either. If it's a PE class, I'll use that. For oldest, one year it was nutrition and one year it was a Pilates class. So far middle is just first semester freshman, so I have a couple years to figure it out.

[Rhonda in TX]

Some of them I never would have thought of.

 

Look here for the list.

[mcconnellboys]

Hmmmm, if you live somewhere where he can shoot, archery is popular here. Our 4-H Clubs often offer group shooting opportunities. I don't know if you have anything like 4-H....

 

Mine have also done things like tennis or gymnastics in past....

 

What about just enrolling him in an hour long exercise class of some sort (or even renting an exercise video, etc.)? He could pick any style of exercise he likes. Maybe he'd like the kickboxing style of workout, or he could try yoga, etc.... If he did this for about 5 hours per week, you'd be set....

[Chris in VA]

I always suggest sword fighting, but we're that kind of family. :D

 

He may be able to do that through the SCA, archery too. There should be archery for people in normal clothes groups around too.

 

Rosie

 

I have to say that ds, while not taking PE for credit, DID fence for two years :D. We put it on his extracurriculars.

[Guest daphneford]

 

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