Over the past couple of weeks we spent a lot of time watching the Olympics as a family.  When we told Mikayla she was going to have her very own Olympics she got really excited!  We spent a week of our "school time" learning about the Olympics, Olympians and London.

The week began by discussing what the Olympics were and where they were going to be held.  Mikayla got to choose five stuffed animals/babies to act as her Olympic athletes.  (Totally got the idea from here and here).  We then got out her map book with flags that the sisters had given her for her birthday and she randomly chose countries for her athletes to be from.  We made tags with the country flags to hang on each athlete.  Here you can see her athletes and a flag we painted to correspond with the country hosting the Olympics (Great Britain/London).

Doggie – Liberia, Cinderella – Myanmar, Cat in the Hat – Jamaica, Rabbit – Antigua and Giraffe – New Zealand.  As you can see she had quite the variety.  On the day of the Olympics she chose soft baby as her athlete from Swaziland.

After the athletes were chosen and flags distributed we plotted out on the world map where their home countries were.  We then used a string to show how long it was for them to get from their homes to the Olympic games in London.  This was a really neat visual for Mikayla and we spent lots of time talking about how they would get there, how long it would take, who traveled the furthest, etc.

We also spent time talking about the Olympic rings, torch, and other various Olympic symbols.  I also used some ideas and worksheets from this unit.  We made/painted a paper plate Olympic ring craft, but didn’t get a picture of it.  Then on Sunday we hosted our very own Olympic games.  In addition to the three of us, we had Joe, his mom and Katie all come out to watch and even participate in some of the events.  Below you will find a picture recap of the "Olympic Games". 

Ben carrying the "Olympic flame".

Joe and Mikayla waiting for the lighting of the torch.

Olympic athletes and Mikayla admiring the torch and awaiting the start of the events.  She also marched around the torch with each athlete to the Opening ceremony music before the flame was lit.

Daddy teaching Mikayla the appropriate way to begin a sprinting race.

First event – hurdles.  With that form, I think Ben could be a real competitor!

Runners set…GO!

Baby jumping hurdles.

And Mikayla jumping right behind her.  We have a really fun video of this process that I will hopefully post soon!

Ben and Joe demonstrating how to fence.  It was Ben’s idea to put the athletes in their pants/belts to compete so their hands were free.  Mikayla thought this was extra fun!

Mikayla fencing with Joe.

And then again with daddy.

We had inteded for this to be the long jump, but Mikayla kept calling it the high jump.  Basically she ran up to the stick and then jumped when she reached it, or threw her athletes for their "jump".  I also have a fun video of this that I hope to post soon.

This was Mikayla’s reaction when I told her that it was time for the marathon race…I think I would have reacted the same way!

We convinced her marathons were cool by having each of our "spectators" compete in the event!  I took pictures and took some video.

For basketball she tossed a ball into the basket…clearly she needs some practice with this!

Shotput – check out that form!

Discus with a frisbee.  Note the tongue of concentration!

Medal ceremony.  Doggie won bronze, Giraffe silver and Mikayla won gold! 

Some events did not get captured though.  Those include floor routine (dancing to music), speed walking, and sprint races.  Out of all the events I think her favorite was the hurdles.  She kept going back to them!  It was a great day and I think everyone enjoyed themselves!