What do you use for high school health if you do it?

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Also, what grade do you do it in? Plans for dd changed so I am trying to re-work things last minute :eek:

[Pegasus]

We wanted to get it out of the way so DD did health her first semester of 9th grade. It included human anatomy and function (chapters from a Biology text), nutrition and exercise (from assorted sources), a day with a relative who is a nurse to learn first aid (some folks use a Red Cross first aid course), and a few other topics that I can't think of right now. We also had DD read current health articles as they came up in newspapers and magazines for discussion on reading such things with a critical view.

 

I didn't like any of the health texts that I looked at. I wanted to emphasize healthy living and not drug addiction, food disorders, etc.

 

Pegasus

[dirty ethel rackham]

We didn't do a "health class", but we have studied all the aspects of it over the 4 years ... anatomy and reproduction in biology, nutrition partially in how we live and by reading books like "in Defense of Food" and watching videos like Food Inc and Supersize Me, wellness by using some boy scout materials and disease has sort of been a current events king of thing (pertussis, STDs in the news, etc.)

[J-rap]

We usually did health in 9th grade, but it doesn't really matter when you do it. We always discussed health and healthy habits and healthy eating so much, that I barely thought a structured health course was necessary. Still, just to show we did it, we did the SOS High School Health DVD. You can access the program as the teacher and cut out anything you want: special projects, tests, etc. We mostly used it as a review in case I missed anything, and I was involved very little. Not to say that I like courses where I as the teacher can slack, but as I said -- I didn't really feel that we really needed it.

[Melissa in CA]

We just finished a semester of Health using Abeka. I'm not a big lover of all things Abeka, but we have used their Health over the years and have found it a good fit. It gets the job done, and it's a semester course that covers a lot of material at high school level. I am all finished with it...FOREVER! haha...and will be posting it on the sale board soon. ;)

[creekland]

We just finished a semester of Health using Abeka. I'm not a big lover of all things Abeka, but we have used their Health over the years and have found it a good fit. It gets the job done, and it's a semester course that covers a lot of material at high school level. I am all finished with it...FOREVER! haha...and will be posting it on the sale board soon. ;)

 

:iagree: This is what we did too. I actually think Abeka did a good job with their Health curriculum and it's easy to implement for an official credit.

 

Since then I've had my guys read Nutrition Action magazine monthly and write a report on the article of their choice.

[camikins2010]

I too struggled with this one for my 9th grader...we ended up using Abeka which was ok. I purchased a used one, which I felt was a little out of date. So we added other things including getting certified in First Aid and CPR.

[wy_kid_wrangler04]

Since a few of you mentioned Abeka, do you know if the Abeka website has samples? I am nervous about this because we did all Abeka our first year homeschooling because I kept hearing "Its the best" :glare: and it was NOT the best for us. My kids still give me grief over that first year :lol: :001_huh:

 

 

ETA: Abeka does health all 4 years of highschool? Or is it the same book?

[mom31257]

I've not used it yet because we're going to do health next year, but I like the looks of Total Health.

 

I'm just not sure if it's a half credit or whole credit. There are over 400 pages, so it may be a full.

[creekland]

Since a few of you mentioned Abeka, do you know if the Abeka website has samples? I am nervous about this because we did all Abeka our first year homeschooling because I kept hearing "Its the best" :glare: and it was NOT the best for us. My kids still give me grief over that first year :lol: :001_huh:

 

 

ETA: Abeka does health all 4 years of highschool? Or is it the same book?

 

It's the same book. You just pick one year where you want to fit it in.

 

I'm not sure if they have samples or not. I just bought mine used on e-bay after hearing it be recommended a few times by even non-Abeka folks. In general, we're not Abeka users and I DON'T recommend their optional s_x and dating book unless you are VERY conservative. We did not have our boys read that.

[Brenda in MA]

I've used both Abeka and Total Health with different kids. We didn't like either of them. Abeka was thorough and pretty easy to read, but we chose to use the tests, and they were very nit-picky and required the memorization of many details. If I used Abeka again, I think I'd have my student write chapter summaries or essays instead of using the tests that came with it.

 

Total Health was just not very exciting, and my son found some of the advice like, "Don't expose your hair to too much sun or wind," to be kind of silly. Again we didn't like the tests. A lot of the questions were too vague, things like: The best thing about __________ is ___________. Now this was probably a statement in the chapter, but what kind of test question is that?

 

Both of my sons got a lot of "Health" through Boy Scout badges like Personal Fitness and First Aid. I think if I had to do health again with another student, I'd make up my own course, and I'd look to see if the Great Courses has anything interesting. I'm pretty sure they have a course called something like, "Nutrition Made Clear" and another one called "Lifelong Health".

 

I hope you find something that is a good fit for your family.

 

Brenda

[creekland]

I don't know if we used a different year or not, but none of my boys had any problems at all with Abeka's tests or quizzes. I thought the program was reasonably thorough. However, to keep totally "up to date" with current studies on nutrition, we added the Nutrition Action magazines. I think almost any curricula will be out of date on that since so many studies are ongoing - and perhaps - controversial.

[banker281]

We used Abeka Life Management Under God as Health in 11th grade.

[Mom22ns]

We used Intellego Health this year. I also had ds read, What to Eat, Spark, and Life's Greatest Lessons. I wasn't thrilled with Intellego and although I loved the other books he read, we'll probably use Oak Meadow Health for a spine with them for the next child.

[Rhonda in TX]

Since a few of you mentioned Abeka, do you know if the Abeka website has samples? I am nervous about this because we did all Abeka our first year homeschooling because I kept hearing "Its the best" :glare: and it was NOT the best for us. My kids still give me grief over that first year :lol: :001_huh:

 

 

ETA: Abeka does health all 4 years of highschool? Or is it the same book?

 

Yes, they do have samples. In fact, they have a new edition, but you can still see samples of the old one if you want to compare the look of them.

 

Here's a link to the new one.

[elegantlion]

When we do health I'll pull resources from what I own. I plan to cover nutrition, first aid, healthy lifestyles (which will encompass addiction, sexual issues, mental illness, and excercise). I also plan to cover healthy environments with some ecology. Safety will also get shuffled in as he'll be able to drive by the time we get to Health (:svengo: going to hide that knowledge in the back of my head, so not ready to think about that one).

[Rebel Jedi Mom]

He is finishing this up. We did it 9th grade, second semester. It was painless and simple. We will also do a first aid/CPR class.

[MtnTeaching]

My son is still working on Oak Meadow Health. I threw in a ton of anatomy from his biology book as well. I have been impressed with this course and the additional reading they assigned (did it on our own, not online class).

[JSnow]

We did Health the first semester of 9th grade. I do not use MFW, but used their syllabus for Total Health and I Kissed Dating Goodbye. My daughter did enjoy both books and we had lots of discussions on both books. I thought it was going to be a waste :), but turned out to really enjoy it. I gave her a half credit.

[Second Time Around]

As a non-US person, living in the US, I just so balk at this universal requirement on high school diplomas. I never took one single health course in my entire school career and managed to survive to middle age! DS is just wrapping up 10th grade. I just can't see us fitting this in. I mean, we talk about healthy living on a non-scheduled basis. He probably picks up quite a bit just from being a human being living in a family that has certain health and moral standards. If this does not appear on his transcript along side Great books and Calculus, does this mean he has flunked high school? He may well do advanced Bio which includes quite a bit on anatomy, and I may get him to do a red cross/cpr course some summer.

 

Am I the only rebel on this point, or are there others like me? I mean, I wouldn't object to him doing this if we could fit it in, but that is so hard to do, especially when he has some learning disabilities that take priority (eg. getting his basic language skills up to college level). Even my daughter who is away at a residential high school is wondering how to fit this course into the 10th grade year. She does ballet, so her time is also extremely limited. And ballet dancers learn more about 'health' than most of the population, but she needs that little half credit for her high school to give her its graduation blessing.

[Excelsior! Academy]

We did 1/2 credit utilizing the last half of Apologia General Science which is about the human body, we also did the Bible, (The Mosaic laws have lots of accurate health advice in them.) and separate books to teach general higene and another to teach reproduction. All that coupled with life, dr's appts., and discussion.

[klmama]

I have both Total Health and A Beka Health in Christian Perspective. I definitely think the A Beka is the better text.

[Lolly]

Because it is a required 1/2 credit for mine to receive a diploma, first semester of 9th grade they have all used the SOS Health that I purchased. It is silly. It accomplishes nothing, imho. But, they learned to jump through a hoop as is often required in life. It was fairly painless and quick.

[creekland]

I have both Total Health and A Beka Health in Christian Perspective. I definitely think the A Beka is the better text.

 

Thank you for the comparison. Can you share reasons? I know I liked Abeka quite a bit, but I had wondered a bit about Total Health since it is rather popular.

[klmama]

The A Beka text is detailed, as are all the A Beka Health texts. Now, if you want to simply check the box, Total Health will do the job. So much of it is common knowledge by high school age, though, that it doesn't seem worth the expense or time.

 

Let's look at how each text treats the eye. My description of Total Health is longer because I wanted you to see the type of details.

 

Total Health covers the eye in 2 and 1/2 pages (large type). The first page tells us nothing about the eye itself. The paragraphs mention

• a commercial for eyeglasses
  
• people with vision take it for granted and don't understand blindness
  
• Bible uses eyes to illustrate spiritual truths
  
• caring for eyes is important
  

The second page gives a very basic list of ways to care for the eye.

• proper lighting
  
• rest eyes when reading/using computer
  
• wear sunglasses
  
• protective eyegear in sports
  
• vision checks
  
• don't rub eyes
  
• keep sharp objects away
  
• don't look at sun/bright light
  

That same page starts a list of common eye problems, which continues on the next page. Each illness or eye condition gets 1-2 sentences. Then, there is a short list of eye-related careers with 1-2 sentence descriptions.

 

That's it for the eye in Total Health. As I said, it seems common knowledge by high school.

 

A Beka has two pages (in small type) to cover the actual parts of the eye and how they work together to produce sight, with color illustrations showing

• cross-section of the eye with parts labeled
  
• iris difference between bright and dim light
  
• how lenses correct near- and far-sightedness
  

There are also medical meaning lists of prefixes and suffixes for scler(o)-, my(o)-, -op(s), and -ia.

 

It goes on to cover vision issues briefly (similar to Total Health, slightly more detail), and gives a long list of specific symptoms to be aware of that may indicate a problem with vision.

 

There is another page in a section on disabilities that discusses vision impairment/blindness, several causes (same basic info as in Total Health), and a very specific list of ways to interact appropriately with a person with impaired vision.

[CountryRose]

Klmama,

 

Thanks for giving such a detailed comparison of Abeka and Total Health. I have been going back and forth trying to decide which one to use this coming fall. I was leaning toward Abeka and now feel confident this is the right choice for us.

 

Thanks again!

[creekland]

klmama - thank you VERY much for that detailed comparison! I knew I liked Abeka for how it handled health in detail, but I just didn't know how Total Health compared. Now I know.

 

I'm kind of thinking many might appreciate you starting a new thread with the post you made. I'm not sure how many will see it three pages in to this thread. What to use for Health is a common question many of us have. You wouldn't need to change much - just an intro - then cut and paste the rest. It's up to you though...

[shea]

Is the teacher's manual needed for the Abeka, or would the answer key alone be sufficient?

Thanks

[Katiebug_1976]

We used the MFW recommendation and went with Total Health & I Kissed Dating Goodbye for dd this year (10th grade). We didn't pick 10th grade for any reason, it just kind of fell into place...we had the book, and she had the extra time in her schedule for it so...that's where it fell.:tongue_smilie:

[rieshy]

We didn't do a "health class", but we have studied all the aspects of it over the 4 years ... anatomy and reproduction in biology, nutrition partially in how we live and by reading books like "in Defense of Food" and watching videos like Food Inc and Supersize Me, wellness by using some boy scout materials and disease has sort of been a current events king of thing (pertussis, STDs in the news, etc.)

 

This is similar to how we have done it. We also do CPR-First Aid training and re-training. Plus I make sure my kiddos know how to plan, shop, and cook healthy meals as part of our health class.

[April Walker]

We started out with Bob Jones Health in 9th grade, which I used with my two oldest kids. It wasn't getting done this year. It seemed like an old book. We switched to Alpha Omega Health with the lifepacs. It has gotten done. I'll probably use Alpha Omega from now on with the rest of my kids.

[HollyDay]

I've used Total Health and agree it is an "okay" spine. We added a Red Cross First Aid book, a disaster survival booklet (we lived in a hurricane zone), a nutrition book (which I loved but can't think of the title at the moment), and a general Women's Health book (I have daughters). I also found a basic "home safety" book at the library that covers things like food storage and cooking to prevent illness and such.