Olympics Fun -- Part 1

By Amy

I've always thought one of the biggest perks to home-schooling was having freedom -- freedom to school when you want to; freedom to school where you want to; and freedom to teach what you want! This week we have loved that freedom as we've had a "prepare for the Olympics" week -- next week will probably be "enjoy the Olympics" week.

I'll save the pics for later, but I'll share a few of the things we've done so far.... We put up a map of the world and have been making flags for a few different countries and learning where they are. Yesterday, I was asking Savannah why I had chosen these countries for us to make flags... China- that's where the Olympics are; Greece -- that's where the Olympics began; Thailand -- "Because we love Thailand." That's right, kiddo! (And it's a familiar place for my kids.) My goal is to come up with different ways to make each flag, instead of just having the kids color each one. So, our Chinese flag is made of a collage of a variety of red papers torn from a magazine and a few other things. We made the Thai flag by gluing yarn to a white piece of paper. (All three kids helped cut the yarn to the right length, but Savannah and I glued it down.)

Another fun things we did was talk about the mascots of the Beijing Olympics. They are 5 cartoon-type children that each represent different aspects of the games. The sentence, "Welcome to Beijing" is represented by 5 Chinese characters, so these 5 kids are each named one of those 5 characters. You can go to this website to learn more about them http://en.beijing2008.cn/spirit/beijing2008/graphic/n214068254.shtml
I think it's really interesting. We actually made up a song to help us remember them!

Today we discussed the Olympic rings, so we learned how they represent the 5 major continents and found/labeled them on our map. Then, we cut out 5 big rings and put them above our map. After that, we made some sugar cookies and cut them with biscuit cutters to make rings. Tonight, after dinner we'll decorate them and have them ready to eat at our "Olympic Party!" All week we've been talking about the opening ceremonies -- that start on August 8, 2008, at 8:00 --8/8/08 -- 8 is a 'lucky' number in China. So, we're going to let the kids stay up late to watch! I'm pretty excited!

Next week, I still have several flags that I want us to make, as well as Olympic torches, and maybe even the green olive branch crowns...we'll see. I also will have Savannah keep a tally of medals won by a few specific countries. I got most of my ideas from my friend Rachel and this website: http://www.activityvillage.co.uk. It has been tons of fun for us all!

Let the games begin!