Posted by Pauline on June 25 2008 at 18:05:19:
In Reply to: phys. ed. curriculum question posted by Sarah Fretz on June 25 2008 at 15:57:12:
>>>>Since the gym courses cover team sports, and being our son has a spectrum disorder that entail not such great motor skills, can we opt for a more "user-friendly" activity? He wants to take karate classes which would be of an enormous bigger benefit than basketball and flag football! Thanks for any help!
You can teach Phys Ed just about any way you want. You certainly donīt have to teach basketball and flag football just because the local public school does. Karate is just fine. So is a mixed program of whatever appeals to your son - roller skating, nature hikes, swimming in the summer, and so on can all count as phys ed.
In fact, you donīt have to teach in lockstep with the public school at all. I am concerned about your statement that "the curriculum office basically rejected my planned objectives". Unless your objectives were totally lame, the district is supposed to accept them. You may wish to run this by Sarah Pearce at the PDE to discuss whether your district was out of line. As a home educator, you should feel wide-ranging discretion to choose the curriculum content and approach that is best for your child; these choices are likely to (and in many cases *should*) diverge from the public school offerings as you create an educational program specifically designed for your child. This is one of the primary advantages of home education. You should definitely not feel any pressure to mirror the public schoolīs planned courses.