Health is an elective subject in the Lifepac syllabus—consequently there are only two programs covering 4^th-7^th and 8^th-12^th grades. This is a pretty standard treatment, nothing fancy here, but all the bases are covered. Student books are colorful and engaging and there is enough work to keep them occupied.

How Do These Work?

Health Quest is for grades 4-7; High School Health covers grades 8-12. There are five student workbooks and a single teacher’s guide for each series. Some find the material too advanced for fourth graders, but you can really implement the program whenever your students are ready. All five student books could be completed in a single semester, or you could make them last an entire year or more.

Students read text and complete exercises. All answers are included in the teacher’s guides, as well as grading scales and rubrics and model lesson plans. Other than that there isn’t a lot of teacher support, but you shouldn’t need it since the student workbooks are pretty self-contained. Nothing is required of the teacher except grading students’ written work.

The Health Quest series deals with basic health concerns like dental care, first aid, exercise and healthy eating. High School Health covers the same general territory, but in more detail and often with supplementary scientific information. Both series approach the subject from a Biblical perspective, relating many of the concepts taught directly to Scriptural passages.

Our Honest Opinion:

If you’re looking for a comprehensive health curriculum, look elsewhere; if you just want an introduction and basic overview this may be the answer. Most of the material is pretty common sense stuff, though especially in the high school books it is illuminated by less well known background information. There shouldn’t be anything too divisive here, but you may want to review some of the information before just letting your kids read it unsupervised.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.