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I am in the brainstorming stages of crafting a PE class for dd's 10th grade year.  I had not originally planned to include PE as a for-credit class.  My state requires that we "cover" it but no specific credit is required.  However, I am attempting to lighten dd's academic schedule going forward.  A significant factor in our decision to homeschool is that dd is heavily involved in a competitive sport and another activity.  Both require a lot of travel and even when not on the road, dd devotes 3-6 hours daily to the two activities combined.  Dd wrapped up the competition season for her sport for the year and is now heading into off-season training, much of which she does on her own.  I have five solid and rigorous academic subjects figured out for 10th grade.  We have been considering different options for the 6th subject (six is the minimum number of credits I would like to see dd earn annually).  We have struggled to select a subject because we both feel like a shortage of time has produced a lot of anxiety this year and all that are under consideration are difficult and time consuming.

 

In her annual meeting with her coaches to discuss her off-season training plans, goals, and accountability, it occurred to me that we could make this into a pretty neat educational opportunity.  She has to do the actual training anyway so I am toying with the idea of crafting this into a PE credit.  There was a lot of discussion about tracking heart rate, training metrics, what a "measurable" goal is, and injury prevention.  She is to craft a formal plan with goals, tracking mechanisms, and schedules.   If I formalized this, it could be part of class.  I would then like to add research and writing about health-related topics such as nutrition, heart rate training, injury prevention, different training methods for her sport, bios of athletes she admires, etc.....  For instance, dd asked her coach if she should consider taking a Crossfit class for high school athletes offered near our home.  He discouraged her and asked her to read up on the injury rates and make her own notes to then discuss with him at their next meeting.  I could ask her to write a formal paper on a topic like this.  And this could all largely be done over the summer, taking the pressure off during the academic year.

 

Anyone ever do anything like this?  If so, did you find any specific materials helpful?  Books, videos, curriculum?

 

I am gathering ideas so all thoughts are welcome.

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Um,  I think you're overthinking this.  Track her hours of physical activity and call it good.  60 to 90 hours is .5 credit, 120-180 is 1.0 credits.

 

And actually, an "hour" is not actually necessarily an hour.  In our state, 100 minutes a week counts as a week of PE in public schools.  That's 20 minutes a day.  

 

I know she could just log it and call it good.  I just think dd could get a lot out of taking it a few steps further.  I would like to tie in data analysis, setting measurable goals, and research because dd will likely be very active for a long time.  I think it would be valuable, both in self-improvement and injury prevention, to learn how to research different topics and think (and therefore be able to write) analytically about them.  This would also be a form of accountability to help dd stay on track when not training with her team and without direct coaching support.  These are skills that have been historically difficult for her teammate predecessors.  

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So you're not actually trying to lighten her load?  (Your words in OP).

 

Those are great ideas, but they sound like a better fit for an English class (research and writing and thinking analytically) than a PE class.  

 

I am asking for ideas about a particular subject in hopes of someone sharing something I had not thought of, not a critique of the basic plan.  I can assure you that what I have in mind is significantly less of a load than the alternative subjects we were considering for that last slot.  In addition, she is already being asked to do much of this as part of her off-season training, including significant tracking and some research and writing.  The bulk of the activity would be in the summer when dd is not taking any other classes so would indeed be a lessened load during the academic year.  Lastly, dd researches and writes in ALL of her classes.  That is the whole idea of a classical education, is it not?  I see little educational value in counting up training hours and calling it credit-worthy.  That is why I did not plan to put PE anywhere on dd's transcript. But I see an opportunity to make more out of it in order to indeed make it worthy (in my mind, YMMV) of true academic work.

 

Not that I feel any of this requires a justification.

 

I am hoping others have done some out-of-the-box things with PE that they would like to share.  I appreciate, and will continue to, the suggestions people are offering.

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OP, I don't have anything else useful to offer, but I just wanted to say I applaud what you're planning.

 

IMHO, the goal of "Physical Education", really is, or should be, learning how to maintain lifelong health through physical activity, and why it is so important to our wellbeing. Here at our house, its not just logging activity in the short moment the class is being "taken" and it is not just checking a box because someone says we should. 

 

FWIW, we used Oak Meadow's Integrated Health & Fitness course, and it covers many of the things you mentioned. I'm not saying you need to use a formal course, just that you're not alone!

 

You might want to consider also having your daughter read a book that OM schedules in their course: Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by Ratey. It's a great read about how physical activity affects our emotions, mood, etc. We do cover these things at home as part of "parenting" but somehow having DS read it in a book made it less of a nag thing LOL.

 

I think the type of course you're planning could have a real, positive impact on your daughter for a very long time.  :thumbup:

Edited by TarynB
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FWIW

I can share similar things we did. I use a cover school to be legal in my state. And the cover school requires 1 year of PE (and 1 semester of health.) Some information was in the text we used for health (Total Health) so it all worked out in the end.

 

I chose to do a blend of academic side of physical fitness learning and logging activity. Oldest was doing archery and wanted to have that sports letter award. So she had to write a 2 page paper on nutrition, training, and injury prevention with her sport. She did basic internet research to do that. Yes, it was part of PE credit. Probably not as rigorous as your student is doing.

 

The next two children used (don’t laugh too hard at this) Monarch’s physical fitness course for the academic side of their PE credit. (yes, monarch as in lifepac/switched on schoolhouse).  I was happy surprised. I liked that the course was geared toward lifetime fitness aspect and was age appropriate. Not super rigor but adequate toward this. It’s possible your daughter knows most of the stuff in that course, but it talked about cardio, stretch and strength at basic everyone needs it level. I probably got some discount code at the right time of year.  (eta:  Physical Fitness is the course we used.  monarch has another one called physical education, and I don't have experience with that course)

 

I didn’t have them do the textbook I used for my own fitness instruction training. I’m sure it’s on amazon. Fitness: Theory and Practice: The comprehensive resource for fitness instructors.  I used it to become a certified group fitness (dance aerobic) instructor within the last 10 years. (I'm retired now).  It may or may not be the right thing for off season training or information for your child. But if you went through that book, that’s an academic course in my opinion and I’d titled it with a little more than just PE grade 10. (Fitness: Theory and Practice sounds good).

 

Oh the cover school I use has student athletes label year 1 as PE. Then if they are in sports, the other years are called the sport name. Or some variation on that.

 

And these days, I’m sure there are some great apps to track training goals.  When I was teaching group classes, I simply wore a polar brand heart rate monitor and let it track my heart rate for me.

 

hope something helps a bit.

 

 

Edited by cbollin
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In her annual meeting with her coaches to discuss her off-season training plans, goals, and accountability, it occurred to me that we could make this into a pretty neat educational opportunity.  She has to do the actual training anyway so I am toying with the idea of crafting this into a PE credit.  There was a lot of discussion about tracking heart rate, training metrics, what a "measurable" goal is, and injury prevention.  She is to craft a formal plan with goals, tracking mechanisms, and schedules.   If I formalized this, it could be part of class.  I would then like to add research and writing about health-related topics such as nutrition, heart rate training, injury prevention, different training methods for her sport, bios of athletes she admires, etc.....  For instance, dd asked her coach if she should consider taking a Crossfit class for high school athletes offered near our home.  He discouraged her and asked her to read up on the injury rates and make her own notes to then discuss with him at their next meeting.  I could ask her to write a formal paper on a topic like this.  And this could all largely be done over the summer, taking the pressure off during the academic year.

 

Anyone ever do anything like this?  If so, did you find any specific materials helpful?  Books, videos, curriculum?

 

 

 

Kids under 18 can't enroll in the formal courses, but you can find plenty of used texts from personal trainer cert courses online.  All of them should cover basic A&P, safety and injury prevention, cardiovascular training, nutrition, and program development. I have several, lol, and they're all basically the same.

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