For health class, I was going to go down a list of unit studies I found online. It was all the basic stuff – fitness, nutrition, alcohol being bad, drugs being bad, sex being mostly bad, etc. Health is one of those subjects that a lot of states require homeschoolers demonstrate they’ve learned about. Unfortunately, it’s boring. I’m only about a couple weeks into the semester and I’m already bored. What I’ve decided is that every unit should relate to my life in some way. I have many health issues myself that I’m working through, and most of them require me to watch videos/get educated about lifestyle and what’s healthy versus what my parents did. That takes up a lot of my time, because to get better I can’t just take a pill, I need to actually do the work. I decided I want to work my own health struggles into my health curriculum. In particular, I am going to start with a list of questions that I want answered rather than a list of assignments and then searching for material that will give me an answer.
The first unit I am supposed to cover is nutrition. Nutrition is oversimplified in high school health textbooks. As a vegan, the “four food groups” thing gets complicated. For the nutrition unit, I have compiled a list of questions.
- What are signs of B-12 deficiency? How can I know if I’m deficient?
- Which nutrients might I be missing and how can I get them?
- What are some cost-efficient ways to pack more nutrients into each meal?
- What foods are best for someone with depression?
- Can nutritional supplements replace traditional antidepressants?
- What foods can I eat if I don’t feel full?
To track my progress, I will use a stopwatch to time how long I spend on the nutrition unit and compile a “portfolio” of work done for my health class. This will make sure I get to 75 hours for the half-credit this course offers.
Homeschooled Daemon 