How Many PE Classes?

[shburks]

How many PE classes do you do for your high schooler? Our academic advisor says two years of PE with each class being .25 credits. That just seems high--two years worth of PE or maybe the credit per semester seems low.

Is that typical? 100 years ago when I was in school, two semesters of PE fulfilled our PE requirement and I just can't imagine that there's MORE PE required now!

(Yes, I know..."required" is all just wording and nothing required of homeschoolers per se but I don't want to be giving .5 credit when typical high schools are giving .25 credit!)

[Arcadia]

Two years of PE for two credits. Then 0.25 credit for health. There is no guidelines for homeschooler but I do want my kids to exercise so I use the state guidelines for public school students.

“What are the state high school graduation requirements for physical education (PE)?

The minimum requirement for graduation is two courses in PE. EC Section 51225.3(a) states, “A pupil shall complete all of the following while in grades 9 to 12, inclusive, in order to receive a diploma of graduation from high school: At least the following numbers of courses in the subjects specified, each course having a duration of one year, unless otherwise specified:” (EC Section 51225.3[a][1]) “Two courses in physical education, unless the pupil has been exempted pursuant to the provisions of this code” (EC Section 51225.3[a][1][F]).”

ETA:

“How many minutes of physical education instruction must students in grades seven through twelve receive?

Notwithstanding EC Section 51223(a), “All pupils, except pupils excused or exempted pursuant to Section 51241, shall be required to attend upon the courses of physical education for a total period of time of not less than 400 minutes each 10 schooldays” (EC Section 51222[a]).”

Edited April 19, 2019 by Arcadia

[Momto6inIN]

My state only requires 1 full credit of PE (for ps students, not homeschoolers, but I try to roughly follow guidelines so their transcripts match up to other kids from my state). We just have them do "personal fitness" (walking, running, weights, yoga, whatever) for at least 15 minutes/day each year of high school and then give them a cumulative credit at the end. They are active in other ways, too, of course, with extracurriculars and such, but the 15 minutes/day for 4 years satisfies their official transcript hours.

[SanDiegoMom]

My oldest needed 2 years.  She did one year with half of it health -- so really 1.5 PE  and .5 health. 

[mom2scouts]

Our local public schools have one semester of PE as 0.5 credits and students are expected to get one credit. Health is also a semester course for 0.5 credits.

[mlktwins]

Our schools require 2 years of Health and Physical Education for Advanced Diploma (which is what my boys would be getting if at public school).  To be competitive I am trying to make sure their transcript is competitive with the kids they would be graduating with.  My boys are going into 9th and I want these out of the way.  Would you do 1 year PE and 1 year Health?  My boys swim year round and workout so I can get PE done very easily.  Or...could I do a .5 credit health and 1.5 credit PE?  High school newbie here -- LOL.

[J-rap]

I make sure to follow state guidelines, which says 1 semester of PE and 1 semester of Health.  My kids enjoyed being physically active though, so I always ended up listing 1 full year of PE on transcripts, plus a semester of health.  

[shburks]

Thanks, everyone! Sounds like this is really all over the place, so whatever I decide to do will be ok! We're a military family so where we live now is not where he'll graduate but I would like his transcript to look similar to local high schools if he applies to in state schools for core state requirements.

I do plan to do .5 credit (semester) of health, so it sounds like I need 1-2 credits for PE as well.

[Farrar]

It was 2 years worth for me back in the day. There was one required course that was half health and half basic PE. Then you needed another year of it. Students on sports teams were exempt from that second year. It's 2 credits here as well and seems to be 2 credits in many states. I'm having my kids do two credits. For my dancer, it's a no brainer. I'm planning to count one of his classes - the stretch one - as "PE." For my other kid, I think a light half credit a year seems fine and doable. This year he took a karate class at his co-op all year and I'm counting that as the half credit.

[Storygirl]

In our state it is .5 credit for phys ed and .5 for health. 120 hours counts as a half credit class.

The PE requirement can be met by doing two seasons of the same sport. Marching band and cheerleading also count toward and can waive participation in an actual PE class. Also, students at the public school can take PE online if they want to free up a period in their school day. I'm not sure how one does PE online, but perhaps it involves tracking hours of activity, plus learning about various sports and their rules (when I was in high school decades ago, we had to take some written quizzes, so I am guessing).

[Lori D.]

DSs did physical activities year-round, and played on the local public school's varsity tennis team, so the hours were way above what was needed for 1-2 credits every year. I just credited them with 0.5 credit of PE for each year of high school for a total of 2.0 credits, and counted the rest as extracurricular activities.

I often see different school districts requiring just 1 credit of PE -- more frequently in the past it was 2 credits. What I frequently see these days is public high schools requiring 0.5 credit each of PE and Health.

Edited April 20, 2019 by Lori D.

[eagleynne]

Around here (southwest Indiana) it is two trimesters of PE and one trimester of Health. So that works out to be 24 weeks of PE and 12 of Health. They can all be done in one academic year or split between 9th and 10th grades.

[2_girls_mommy]

I just had to.do my dd's transcripts yesterday for a scholarship application. I put a half credit each year. She's honestly done more than enough hours for a full credit each year, but I figured that was enough. Some of her hours can be extra curricular in her sport. So she'll have 2 full years when she graduates. I mean she did it. When I was in high school I didn't do sports. But mine should get credit for doing hers. 

[2_girls_mommy]

Oh, and mine did a separate half credit of health one year, so that's another half credit for her. 

[klmama]

9 hours ago, Storygirl said:

120 hours counts as a half credit class.

Was this a typo?  I've always heard that 120-180 hours = 1 credit.  If what you typed is correct, how many hours must one have to earn a full credit?

[Frances]

When I was in high school, we were required to take PE every semester for all four years plus a one semester health class. And it was the same requirement for everyone whether or not you were on a sports team. I know that requirements in many places have been significantly reduced and students can now use sports to replace some or all of the requirement. I know that my two academically inclined and very athletic nieces did the minimum required and in one case, even fulfilled the entire requirement during summer school, in order to take more advanced academic classes.

[Aloha2U]

Physical Education Outside the Box – The HomeScholar

[RootAnn]

Back in the day, it was two full credits that included health. I know some of my public-schooled nieces take their P.E in a special summer school session so they don't have to fit it in during the school year.

My oldest had one credit of health & fitness. Very few colleges, if any,  care about PE. Some (few) do care about a health credit (or half credit).

My next kid will have more just because she's naturally more active.

I count their martial arts training as an extra curricular.

[teachermom2834]

Our state guidelines are .5 credit PE and 1 credit Wellness (or something like that) which is actually .5 credit Health and another .5 credit PE. I just have my kids do that and I am very loose about counting it. My oldest two were athletes so they could have had far more but there is no advantage to that. My current high schooler is not an athlete but no doubt all his pick up basketball in the neighborhood and his many weeks of summer camp is enough to grant him a single PE credit by senior year. 

 

[katilac]

Neither of my kids had any PE on their transcript. Exactly zero colleges asked about it. 

[Melissa B]

I would follow your local school system. Here, kids in sports are exempt from PE classes. Since my kids are/were all in organized sports I don't give any PE credits on their transcripts.

[shburks]

On 4/19/2019 at 7:35 PM, Frances said:

When I was in high school, we were required to take PE every semester for all four years plus a one semester health class. And it was the same requirement for everyone whether or not you were on a sports team. I know that requirements in many places have been significantly reduced and students can now use sports to replace some or all of the requirement. I know that my two academically inclined and very athletic nieces did the minimum required and in one case, even fulfilled the entire requirement during summer school, in order to take more advanced academic classes.

Good heavens...how did you get anything else done if you had to tie up one class period with PE every semester all four years? That's crazy! Four core classes, foreign language, and PE. Is that all your transcript said?

4 hours ago, Melissa B said:

I would follow your local school system. Here, kids in sports are exempt from PE classes. Since my kids are/were all in organized sports I don't give any PE credits on their transcripts.

 

We're a military family and will be moving in the middle of his high school years, so I'm not sure what that is! ha! I'll certainly look closer at the local systems once we're closer to graduation though!

[Frances]

2 hours ago, shburks said:

Good heavens...how did you get anything else done if you had to tie up one class period with PE every semester all four years? That's crazy! Four core classes, foreign language, and PE. Is that all your transcript said?

My high school had more than six periods and did not offer more than two years of a foreign language. Although I agree it’s overkill for those in sports, my PE teacher was amazing and the classes were excellent. Even being in band, I still had room for several electives.

[Pen]

Our state requires 1 year of PE, and I think also 1 year of health.  Can be split into semesters or quarters. You could check what your own state or country or province requires.

 I think some sort of physical activity is important for well being all 4 years, quite aside from credits.