The 8 Best Ways to Get Your Child Excited About the Summer Olympics
Posted by simplystavish in Blog on Sat, Jun 16, 2012
Will your family be glued to the television during the London 2012 Olympic games like mine will be? With the opening ceremonies just five weeks away, I am super exited! Four years ago my life was very different. I had ample time to watch the games with no distractions, as I wasn’t yet a parent. I was actually pregnant with my first child, so it feels strange to me that we are upon another Olympic Games. Time really flies when you have children. My oldest child is now three and loves all things sports. I have been brainstorming ways to teach him about the summer Olympics once the games start. In researching activities for him, I also brainstormed many fun ideas for older children and wanted to share them with you.
1. Create a Peep diorama based on one of the sports.
2. Work with your tween/teen to make a summer Olympics Pinterest board. Have him or her pin three fun Olympic related activities to do as a family during the summer games.
3. Follow local athletes from your state that are in the games and keep a medal count of their achievements displayed in your house.
4. Pick one country that is represented in the games and have each family member write down five fun facts about that country. Share the facts at dinner one night.
5. Help your child create a menu based on the cuisine from their choice of country and cook the meal together. Decorate the table with cultural items and the colors of the countries flag.
6. Invite a few friends over for an Opening Ceremonies or Closing Ceremonies party. Nothing says a party like Olympic inspired food including cupcakes!
7. On June 23rd participate in Olympic Day, which is a national celebration that honors the creation of the Olympic Games. The Skate of the Union in Washington DC and Chantilly, VA is an all-skating weekend that has skating activities for all types of wheels (inline, roller & skateboard). There are activities for all ability levels (and ages) from beginner clinics and demonstrations to professional competitive races. Get moving as a family!
8. Did you know that there have been 26,513 medalists since the beginning of the games? Let’s not forget about those incredible athletes of the past. Each day of the Olympic Games have each family member investigate a medalists by searching the medal vault.
What is your favorite sport from the games? How do you share the Olympic Games with your children?
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About Mindi Stavish
Mindi is a working mom with two silly boys, Xander (age 3) and Noah (age 1). She spends her work days helping children with their speech, language, voice and swallowing disorders. The real fun for her happens when she is at home with her boys, chasing them around and pretending to be a super hero. She blogs about their silly antics at Simply Stavish where she also writes a weekly feature with lots of information about child language, speech and feeding development. In her less than free time, she feeds her yarn addiction and knits. Her phone is never far from her and you can find her filling her social media addictions on Twitter, Facebook , Instagram at simplystavish, and Pinterest.
