Unless your state requires it, you don’t have to teach Health every year of high school. Some states want Health to be a requirement for graduation, but colleges generally don’t care about it much. Some colleges want to see students who take health as a separate course, while others assume it is included in Physical Education (PE) classes. More often, colleges don’t mention it as a requirement at all.
Both times I used Total Health, I combined it with their sports activities to make it a PE credit. I didn't list Health separately on their transcript. With their sports activities, I did have an EASY 150 hours of PE, and I did give them a full credit, but they were doing soccer, swim team and baseball at the time. If I had listed Total Health alone on the transcript, I think I would have given it 1/2 credit, because even with the tests and stuff, I don't think it would take the time for a full year at 1 hour a day to complete. In Washington state, we are required to teach health at some point in their lives, but they don't specify when or how much, so I had no requirement as to it being a whole credit in high school.
If you want to supplement, consider taking a CPR or basic first aid course, that would be great!
We really liked the books by Susan Boe. Written for Christian Schools, it’s assumes the student lives in a reasonably healthy environment, without sex or drugs. It covers physical, spiritual, and social health.
Total Health is a wonderful books, and both of my boys loved it. In fact, when I bought the first one, the kids ended up reading it on their own over summer before school even started. It had a wonderful tone, and had a nice balance between conservative concerns and some of the issues that Christian kids might face at school or youth group.
The Junior High or Middle School Book: Total Health: Talking About Life’s Changes by Susan Boe
The High School Book: Total Health: Choices for a Winning Lifestyle by Susan Boe
For younger students, we used “Passport to Purity” for a discussion about healthy dating from a Christian perspective.
For a more complete exploration of teaching homeschool health, read my article, Homeschool Health for High School.
