As homeschooling families, many of us have students that participate in sports or who participate in a consistent physical activity and we’d like to be able to give them a high school credit even though we have no textbook. This means that we’re looking for some sort of standard to assure ourselves that our student is doing all that is required to earn that homeschool physical education credit.
There are a variety of ways to earn a physical education credit!
In the state of Florida, the statutes require public school students (remember, you are homeschooling and not held to these requirements) to earn one credit in physical education integrated with health. The intention obviously being to teach our students how to maintain a healthy lifestyle. The H.O.P.E. (Health Opportunities through Physical Education) credit combines a study in nutrition, exercise, injury prevention, and healthy lifestyles with actual physical activity for one high school credit. Oftentimes our students are participating in activities where this information is stressed making it easy to award this credit to your student.
You can also earn P.E. credits in other ways. For example, if your student plays on a sports team, you may be able to award them at least a half-credit in that particular sport. You can find a lengthy list of available sports credits by visiting the state of Florida’s High School Course Code Directory and clicking through the drop-down boxes to the Physical Education section for ideas on how to award these credits.
You will want to keep track of hours. 135 hours of bona-fide instruction in a designated course of study is the guideline for earning one credit (67.5 for a half credit).
Other ways to earn P.E. credits can be through participation in marching band or R.O.T.C. – assuming these activities have an extensive amount of drill work, which they usually do! Even a strenuous dance class can be used to meet your P.E. requirement. If your student is interested, contact your local public or private high school and ask about participating in their sports or band programs. It is important to note that if you are registered with a non-traditional private school, you may need to follow certain guidelines in order to participate with your local public school. Check with the Florida High School Athletic Association for more information.
If you have a student who is not participating in a physical activity regularly, or it is just too much to add to your family’s schedule, don’t fret. You will not find Physical Education on the requirements for most college applications. Don’t try to squeeze one more activity into your family’s routine just to check a box, as it’s perfectly fine to graduate high school without a P.E. credit. Or, if you’re only participating every once in a while, keep track of your involvement and take several years to put together a credit.
~to your success
Joanne
Image courtesy of duron123 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Is a program in learning and participating in square dancing usable for Florida’s Homeschooling Athletic credit? The course is 32 hours long and the students are encouraged to participate in dances in addition to the course. Thus, the students may accumulate well over 100 hours of activity in the course of a school year.
Hi Albert – Yes, the Florida Statutes allow students to use dance as a PE credit in public schools, so you may feel free to count it as such as well. 🙂
Would bowling count as P.E. We bowl between 2-4 hours a week, plus my daughter bowls 2-3 hours in a youth league.
Hi Sharon – Yes, you can use bowling for your PE credit if you would like. Most colleges aren’t picky about those kinds of things – unless you are coming in as an athlete. I would list it as Bowling on your transcript so that it is clear what she did.
My homeschooled son swam on our local high school’s swim team last year and I awarded him .5 phys ed credit. If he participates in 2 sports this year (swimming and, let’s say, track & field), can I award him 1 whole phys ed credit for the year? Thanks for your help!
Hi Alissa – yes – students are typically awarded a half-credit for a season of high school sports.