Olympic Games
Aug 12th, 2008 by Alicia
We’re having a family Olympic event here later today! The kids are going to make medals and then they’re going to compete in various sports like discus (frisbee), running and the long jump.
Each child is going to pick a country to represent and then learn a bit about their country. Anna has already decided to be France and she’s written a letter of introduction to the French people! 
We are also rigging the games! Since the kids are all different ages and skill levels, it’s a bit of an unfair competition. In our house, that often leads to drama. Egads, does it lead to drama some days! It is very hard to be a 5 year old boy with two older sisters who always seem to run faster than you ever will. It is also very hard to be a younger sister who can never seem to finally beat her super athletic big sister. And it’s just too darn easy when you’re the oldest, fastest and biggest.
To keep it from getting too competitive or frustrating, they’re drawing numbers ahead of time to find out where they’re supposed to finish up. Then they have to work as a team to come out in that order. For instance, if Victoria draws silver, she has to work to come out second. They have to make it look real, though, just like they’re throwing the games! 
Victoria is a bit disgruntled about this, but I think once she sees it in action she might actually get into it. In any case, it seemed like a cool experiment.
I’ve also printed out handouts and worksheets and writing prompts and so on.
We’ll have to make up an Olympic torch to light too, for the kids to carry to each other…
It should be a fun time!
