Olympics Ideas for Kids

www.fridayschildmontessori.com

Even if you try to have a household where the TV is turned on as little as

possible so your pre-schooler can spend their time more profitably in

imaginative play and the like, the rules tend to be relaxed a bit every

four years when the Olympic

Games come on.

It’s certainly the case in this writer’s household.

However, following the Montessori principle that the

environment can be used to help a child’s learning and to help them

explore the world, maybe watching a selected few Olympic events on TV

might be a good chance to introduce your child to

few new concepts and ideas.

Obviously, watching the Olympics is a great way to expose your child to a

few different sports that you don’t usually see.

How often, for example, do you get to watch synchronised diving or hammer

throw?

These can make great “fuel” for imaginative play and could even eventually develop into a lifelong

sporting interest… and possibly your child may end up representing

Australia one day.

Don’t be in a hurry to rush out to join an athletics club straight away or to sign

up for swimming lessons (although knowing how to swim is a useful skill).

The same goes for gymnastics, although many gymnastics clubs have classes for pre-schoolers that are a lot of fun for children to do and take part

in.  

Gymnastics clubs are often out to catch talent young and find Australia’s next crop of Olympic hopefuls, so if your

child is good at gymnastics, these early fun classes can easily (and quickly) lead to

something more. 

But that’s not really important at this stage.  Just have fun and

let your child play at pretending to be an athlete.

You could even hold a family Olympics for certain events.  You can get as creative and elaborate as you

like, and possibly invent

your own events.

If you like, make a day of it, complete with medals (which are fun to make as a craft activity in their own right) and

national anthems. 

One of the beauties of the Olympics is that it does involve the whole world. 

This means that your child gets to see people from all sorts of small countries

that you don’t often hear about otherwise. 

You also get to see a good selection of flags. 

This makes an interesting introduction to geography and the countries of the

world.

You can start by playing Spot The Australian Athlete for very young

children who are only just learning their colours.

With older children, you can get a bit more sophisticated – look up the flags

for the different countries and find where the countries are on the

map

(a trip to the library may be necessary if you don’t have a good basic atlas handy). You might find yourself

learning a few new facts yourself here – after all, do you know what the flag of Kazakhstan (ahead of Australia on the

medals table at the time of writing) looks like or know where to find it on the map (hint – it’s in Central Asia to

the south of Russia).

There are really lots of fun things to do with young kids. And an Olympic theme

activity is a worthwhile Montessori learning idea.

More fun-time Montessori Learning at

Fridays Child Montessori Blog