We often hear questions about high school health (and everything else homeschooling).
4 Ways to Cover Homeschool High School Health Credits
There’s not ONE right way to homeschool high school and there’s not ONE right way for your teens to earn their required Health credits! Here are 4 ways that you and your teens can choose. You can even mix and match for leveled-up credits. (Does your homeschool high schooler need an Honors Health credit for their homeschool? Not sure? Here’s a post that explains levels for the homeschool transcript.)
1)Â Use a text: 7Sisters’ High School Health for the Whole Person
Many homeschool moms like their high schoolers to use a textbook for required courses. That way they are certain that the necessary material has been covered. Often homeschool moms had requested that 7Sisters publish a Health curriculum, so we did!
Now you can cownload 7Sisters’ NEW High School Health for the Whole Person, an interesting, no-busywork, adaptable text in the 7Sisters style that so many homeschoolers love!
- Teens don’t like to waste their time on anything that is not necessary to know. So we respect that by keeping lessons short and sweet.
- They want to understand and remember what they learn, so the writing style is accessible to most homeschool high schoolers.
- Homeschool high schoolers want assignments and tests that are fair, so we created tests that, if teens have digested the material, they will remember (no trick questions).
- Many teens want to level-up, so we included meaningful enrichment activities that they can choose from to earn an Honors credit in an enjoyable way.
- Click here for an excerpt from the text.
- Here are tips for teaching Health in co-op class.
- For teens who work best with a syllabus, here is one for Health that you can download and adapt to your needs,
Click image for full description.2) Create a Carnegie credit.
Log 120-135 hours of individual instruction in health topics. First, choose health topics from a wholistic approach and work with your teen to develop a plan for healthy lifestyle. (Here is a post that explains Carnegie units.) Then, decide on activities that they can develop skills in:
- Spiritual development
- Physical health
- Soul health (mental and emotional growth and health)
- Social health (good relationship skills for family, friends, work and organizations)
- Safety (understanding and addressing drugs, alcohol, personal safety)
- Include hands on practical trainings such as Red Cross First Aid and CPR courses.
- Here is a post on getting teens interested in healthy lifestyles. AND, don’t miss this useful episode of Homeschool Highschool Podcast that teaches Psychological First Aid.
3) Anatomy and Physiology
Anatomy and Physiology is a good choice for future nursing or pre-med students. This course looks intensely into the body’s systems. It is much more rigorous and less wholistic than a traditional Health curriculum. Here’s a post that explains the difference between the two courses. While they are not really the same thing, many supervisory organizations allow students to substitute Anatomy and Physiology for Health. A good curriculum for A&P is at Apologia.
4) For teens who have already covered nutrition, exercise, drug avoidance, and abstinence- why repeat the same stuff?
Some teens have covered Health several times during middle school, so balk at a high school level Health curriculum. For these teens, it is a good idea to give them some genuine life-lasting skills for their Health course. Allow them to gain understanding of themselves, their siblings, their parents, and grandparents. This is covered in the course: Human Development from a Christian Worldview. If you have a supervisory organization, check with them about whether they accept Human Development as a Health credit (otherwise, it is an elective or Social Science credit).
Long ago, when my oldest kids were in high school, we had not even started 7Sisters, much less have a no-busywork Health curriculum. My teens had covered health pretty well in middle school. What could I use for the required Health credit for their homeschool transcripts?
I didn’t want my kids to graduate high school without a good understanding of the way people grow and change from womb to old age. That’s when I decided that Human Development could be a great choice for Health. My umbrella school supervisors approved.
However, I couldn’t find a Human Development curriculum from a Christian worldview.
So, out of my work and training as a counselor I created one. I’ve been using it for years with all my kids and the local homeschoolers.
I remember one day, my 15-year-old was telling me why the 2-year-old niece of his friend says, “NO” and “over-generalizes her grammar rules”. He also understands why his grandparents tell the same stories over and over. He also is beginning to recognize the early stages of his own metacognition. These are skills that will help him be a better babysitter and friend. Then someday, he’ll be a better husband and father. These are Human Development skills. Those are pretty good Health skills, too. The things teens learn in Human Development are things that build life skills, character and a good transcript.
Our Human Development book is written as a light-hearted text at an average high school level. My son added activities suggested in the book to increase the level to college prep.
BTW- 7Sisters offers a suggested syllabus for teens to use, as well as Lesson Plans for Human Development (these are useful for co-op teachers or deep dives for individuals)
So, here are 4 different choices for Health credits for homeschool high schoolers. You can combine them, also, for Honors-level credits. That way, your teens will look back on their good Health experiences and be grateful you found a right-fit Health credit for them.
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Click here for some practical ways to use Human Development from a Christian Perspective in your homeschool.
How would my child go about getting credit for the 7 sisters high school course after they complete the class? My daughter is in public high school but I am trying to find some thing that better fits with our values.
Hi AP,
Homeschool parents assign credit earned by their students for 7SistersHomeschool courses (or most traditional homeschool curriculum). However, if you would like for your daughter to earn a credit that is assigned by an organization, perhaps one of the online schools can help (perhaps FundaFunda Academy or True North Academy)?
My son is going into 10th grade and he has never taken health yet. What curriculum would you recommend? Is Total Health too intense. He does like to read so I did not want to get him a huge text book that would make him not want to learn about health. Please advise.
Hi Tami!
Good news! 7Sisters is just about to release High School Health for the Whole Person. It is a full-credit health curriculum in our no-busywork, adaptable-to-different levels style that you’ve seen in our other curriculum. We want teens to LIKE Health, so we’ve worked to make lessons short and engaging.
It will be released by Labor Day, we think. I’ll let you know.
Hello. Has this been released yet? I am also interested for my 9th grader.
Hi Sara, Good question! It was just released a few days ago. You can find our new Health curriculum at: https://www.7sistershomeschool.com/product/high-school-health-for-the-whole-person/
I am very interested in your health and human development course and wondered if there is any chance there is a printed copy. I have a child with comprehension and health issues that prevents her from reading from a computer screen.
Hi Sandy,
Many people print a copy for their students to read. Here is an excerpt. (Note that it is a little blurry on purpose, the real copy when purchased is clear, of course.)
https://www.7sistershomeschool.com/excerpt-from-human-development-from-a-christian-worldview/
This sounds like a very interesting and beneficial course for high school students. My daughter is required to have one semester (1/2 Credit) in Health which must also cover other topics such as nutrition, safety, substance abuse, etc. I see that your program is a full year (1 Credit) program but doesn’t offer these other parts of the required Health curriculum. How would you recommend I supplement this to make it a complete Health program yet have her also get the full credit due that your curriculum provides? Actually, it seems that by supplementing it with the other information needed that it would become more than a one credit course. With supplementation, could this somehow count as Health and ALSO another science course on the high school transcript? Thanks!
Hi Cheri,
Good questions!
Each state or umbrella school will have some varied requirements on subjects like health. Your area requires nutrition, safety, etc. You can do this in several ways:
-use a 1/2 credit program- Switched on Schoolhouse has those
-log hours and document individualized instruction in those topics (ie, Red Cross CPR and First Aid classes- really useful, or internet courses- google “internet safety”, “nutrition”, etc- I have a few of these listed in our Middle School white paper in our Freebie section)
You could also record the credits in various ways according to your teen’s needs (or local colleges are looking for):
-record 1/2 credit in health and 1 credit in Human Development (as an elective science)
-record Human Development as a Level 4 (Advanced) credit (higher power on the transcript). Take a look at our posts on 6-19-13 and 6-21-13 for how-to’s.
My oldest is a high school junior this year. I’ve been looking for a health curriculum for him that he can do on his own (no online class).
Lee Binz (The HomeScholar) recommends Total Health, like you do. But, I am interested to find out more about Human Development. I think Lee says Total Health is a half credit course unless you add to it. I’m not planning to add to it.
Does Human Development come with a schedule? How many weeks is it?
Would you give me pros and cons of these two courses? Is it best for students to have “health” on their transcript for the traditional college route? Does it matter if it’s a half or a whole credit?
Hi Sue! Human Development is a 9 chapter text that is designed to be a Level 2 (average high school) one-credit course if you do the chapter questions and suggested “labs” (observations, interviews and the like) for each chapter. The book also continues suggested enrichment activities (research, short papers, etc.) to raise the level to 3 (College Prep) or higher (4 = Advanced, 5 = Honors). I am using it this year with my high school sophomore and 3 friends in a co-op setting, but it would work just fine as an independent study….he is just very social and would rather meet with his friends twice a month! 🙂
It could be completed in 9-12 weeks if you wanted to condense it, but we have chosen to spread it out over the school year and take 2 weeks on each chapter (with a long break over the holidays because we just wanted to do it that way).
General recommendations are that Health definitely needs to appear on a college-bound student’s high school transcript. State recommendations vary, so I’ve chosen to go with the one-credit option because it is more likely to be universally recognized that way regardless of where my son applies to college.
Total Health is a solid traditional text book approach to Health. It covers the normal things you would expect — basic body systems, nutrition, hygiene, exercise, substance abuse prevention, etc. It would not be hard to supplement with videos on the internet, community programs (offered for free many places), and a little effort logging hours to track your progress.
The unique thing about Human Development is that it teaches about the WHOLE person – body, soul, mind and spirit – encouraging personally responsible healthy living but also equipping the student to understand, appreciate and respect the developmental stages of other people across generations. It offers equipping for relationships with other human beings as well as teaching wise decision-making for one’s own health.
This is just my opinion, of course! If you want a little more about the course and haven’t yet seen our video explaining it, check it out on YouTube here: http://youtu.be/b7J14NMru6Y
And feel free to ask more questions if you’ve got ’em!
Thanks Sabrina. It sounds great. Would you recommend Human Development for a student who hasn’t had any other health courses if this would be his only health course in high school?
I’ve seen health as an elective for high school students, but I had not heard that health is generally recommended on the transcript of a college bound student. Do you ask the admissions office at a college your student is interested in attending what subjects they want to see on the transcript? It seems when I’ve asked that, or looked at the website, the answer is more in terms of math, science, English, history and foreign language requirements.
Because most states require health for high school graduation from the public schools, it is becoming sort of expected that it will have been a part of a college-bound student’s preparation. So more than it being a requirement, per se, of a college or university, it is perhaps often an assumption, and because homeschool transcripts are sometimes “red-flags” for close inspection by a college admissions dept. that wants to be sure the homeschool was legit, it is wise to include a health credit.
As far as using Human Development for a student who hasn’t had any other health course, I would do it without a second thought as long as the child had been generally trained in an understanding of how his body works, nutritious eating, healthy exercise, and hygiene. Most of us homeschool moms probably have covered all of that to the nth degree by the time our kids are in middle school! 🙂
Since my daughter (at that time) was planning a career in therapeutic riding, we did an Anatomy and Physiology course. Of course, she had already taken Human Development, which was also important for her (then) future career.
A & P is a great choice for homeschoolers going into any medical profession!