I am an absolute nut for the Olympics. I have oodles of fond childhood memories spent enjoying the games with my family. The fact that we never got to watch much TV, and then were completed saturated for 2 weeks every few years, may have something to do with those great memories. I’ve been waiting for my kids to be old enough to “get” the games and join my husband and I in our Olympic-craziness! We figure at the ages of 3 & 5 they are good to go!
To start building their enthusiasm, we are teaching them about the various sports. The internet is jam packed with a wide variety of Olympic-themed resources. Pinterest (which scare the heck out of this non-crafty mom) has tons of brilliant ideas for winter Olympic crafts.
Each day our boys pick a sport they want to learn about (we alternate between the kids to save ourselves a complete meltdown over the sport-of-the-day). I give them a colouring page of that sport. I’ve printed off the Olympic pictogram of that sport (and did a little crayon-work of my own; I’m not talented but I love to colour). Their artwork and the pictogram are taped onto our “Sochi 2014” wall in the kitchen.
Our Sochi 2014 Wall!
We watch a brief movie about the sport. YouTube, of course, has tons of great movies. But I also found a bunch of kid-friendly movies on Activity Village (look for the videos under each sport section). Following the movie we write up a little index card of 3 or 4 key points we learned about the sport. This card also gets added to the wall.
There are tons of great sites that have TONS of Olympic activity sheets, games and more.
This weekend we are making Olympic-ring-themed paper chains to fancy-up our Sochi wall. The boys have already coloured a map of Russia and the Olympic rings. While it was wonderful to have the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010; I think the Olympics offer a great opportunity to teach our kids about other parts of the world, their culture and traditions.
Once we have learned about the various sports, we will move onto learning about the history of the Olympics and some of the traditions they can expect to see. Sharing a fact-a-day about the Olympics, making our own Olympic torches, making a Russian-themed meal (e.g. borscht, beef stroganoff, blini) for the day of the opening ceremony are all part of my plan.
While I do worry I’m creating a bit of a monster (and my kids will expect this level of activity and game-playing every time the Olympics happen) I’m having such a blast getting our whole family into the spirit that I’m willing to risk it!
Remember the opening ceremonies happen February 7th! Sochi, Russia, is 12 hours ahead of us living in the Pacific Time Zone, so the opening ceremonies will be early Friday morning. Have a great time celebrating, and don’t forget to let us know how you spread Olympic excitement at home!
