Fun Ideas to Incorporate Homeschool PE Into Your Day

Published:
August 29, 2022

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While physical fitness may not come to your mind as an integral subject to include in your homeschool, it’s definitely a good idea to include it, no matter the age of your kids! In order to encourage healthy living, here are some great homeschool P.E. ideas you can easily implement.

kids exercising

Homeschool P.E.

Homeschool PE can include a variety of activities that get your kids moving, exercising, building large motor skills, and promoting good health. While the activities you include in homeschool PE might change throughout the school year depending on the seasonality of opportunities, homeschool students can also think outside the box for physical education.

What is the Purpose of P.E.?

The purpose of P.E. is multi-faceted. Here are a few general goals of physical education

P.E. aims to develop skills like strength, speed, endurance, and flexibility so that children can use them to participate in many sports or physical activities. Developing aspects like hand-eye coordination is a great example of the importance of P.E. during the younger years.

As children get older, homeschool parents will want to help them improve coordination and strength and apply these skills to various contexts.

Why You Need Homeschool P.E.

Homeschool P.E. might not be on the top of your planning list, but you shouldn’t ignore it! Including P.E. into your week is a great way to help your kids get more physical exercise, especially if they’re in front of a computer screen for their schoolwork. Plus, by regularly planning physical education into their school years, you’ll be helping them learn lifelong healthy habits.

Getting enough exercise is an important part of maintaining a healthy weight. And did you know that kids who are regularly active see improved concentration and improved behaviors?

So, if you have wiggly kids in your homeschool, you know that planning some great activities is important so they can focus on their school work when it’s time for academics. But how does P.E. work in a home education environment?

Physical Education at Home

Physical education at home might look a bit different than the gym class you participated in while you were in school. You might not have enough kids at home to do some big team activities. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have an impressive physical education at home.

You just might have to think outside the box a bit. And homeschoolers are really good at customizing and being flexible.

When you think about the goals of physical education, you’ll realize that much of it can be accomplished without an official physical education curriculum. In fact, doing yard work for an hour or more each week could give your child or teen the physical activity and strength building practice that’s included in a typical school gym class.

kids jumping rope

Ideas to Teach Homeschool P.E.

When you want to include homeschool P.E. into your weekly routine, it helps to have some practical ideas to use. Here’s a great list to consider, depending on the age and ability level of your kids, but also the amount of money you want to spend.

There are many ways to incorporate physical education into your homeschool routine. Read on to learn more!

Obstacle Courses

A totally free homeschool P.E. idea is to create obstacle courses in your backyard. Do you have a great outdoor space where you could create a fun course? You could even use your existing playground equipment and come up with instructions to follow to make it through the course. In case of bad weather, move your course into the living room with a little bit of prep.

boy jumping in an obstacle course

Homeschool Field Day

Gather a few homeschool friends and enjoy a homeschool field day! Your kids and their friends can participate in classic relay races and other outdoor games. Having a homeschool field day is a great way to wrap up the homeschool year.

Group Sports & Physical Activities

Maybe you’d rather not have to plan homeschool P.E. yourself. In that case, consider group sports and physical activities.

Team sports are an excellent way to learn leadership skills and teamwork. Your kids could choose a specific sport that they love and join a local community team. Or, enroll your kids in individual sports like martial arts, karate lessons, or ice skating.

boys playing soccer

Just Go Outside and Play

When you have young children, homeschool P.E. can be as simple as just go outside and play! You really don’t have to complicate anything. Head to the local park or fun trampoline parks with your kids. Have morning walks as a family.

If you have a great backyard, homeschool P.E. can simply be spending time outside each day exploring, running, building, or playing on outdoor equipment.

Active Video Games

There are many active video games that your kids might love to use for homeschool P.E. Gaming systems include options like

  • Wii Fit & Wii Sports
  • Fitness Boxing
  • Nintendo Switch Sports
  • Kinect Sports Games
  • Zumba Kids for Wii, Xbox 360
  • Just Dance Kids Series for Wii and Xbox, Xbox360

Swim

If you have a local YMCA with a pool or a pool in your backyard, it can be a lot of fun to use swimming as your homeschool P.E. plan! Swimming is great exercise and something your older kids will love too as they work on personal fitness goals.

Host Relay Races

Have some friends over and host relay races for your PE classes. Younger children will have a great time with this simple and fun games that don’t require much preparation at all. If you have too small of a space to host it at your home, then consider finding local soccer fields that aren’t being used.

P.E. for High School Credit

When you have a high school student, you’ll want to figure out what is needed to count P.E. for high school credit. Of course, be sure to check with your state laws to see what is required where you live. But if you have freedom and flexibility for your P.E. credit, here are some options.

High School Homeschool P.E. Courses

Finding high school homeschool P.E. courses doesn’t have to be intimidating. Here are some ideas for you.

Find local physical education classes in your community. This might include weight training or fitness classes at a local gym. Your teen will love the challenge. You could also find a YouTube video and channel with fitness classes that you can participate in from the comfort of your own home.

As mentioned above, your teens could participate in team sports. Or encourage them to pursue individual sports.

Your high schoolers might like the challenge of taking a daily bike ride as they build stamina and endurance. All of these options can usually be included as P.E. on the student’s transcript. Just be sure to log hours if that is required by law where you live.

High School Requirements for Homeschool P.E.

Depending on which state you live in, there will be varying high school requirements for homeschool P.E. Some of this might just relate to logging hours of work to count toward P.E. credits on the student’s transcript. Students usually earn one high school credit for 120 to 180 hours of work. That would mean that 60 to 90 hours of work would give them 1/2 credit, and so on.

Just print out a simple logging sheet and have your teen write down the date, PE activity, and total time. Then, at the end of the year you can add up the amount of time they spent on dedicated physical education and give them a PE credit on the transcript.

Assigning Credits for Homeschool High School P.E.

Assigning homeschool P.E. credits is mostly a matter of paperwork. Students in public school earn a credit when they take a class every day for the entire school year. That amounts to about 135 hours of instruction if the class meets for about 45 minutes in 180 days of school.

If you translate that over to homeschool, you can keep track of each hour of physical activity your child completes and award one credit for anywhere between 120 to 180 hours of P.E.

In Conclusion

Including homeschool P.E. in your weekly routine doesn’t have to be hard! Depending on the ages of your kids, you just need a simple plan like the ones above. You can do it!

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