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WINTER OLYMPICS HOMESCHOOL IDEAS

I was 12 years old when I watched Oksana Baiul skate to Swan Lake across the ice in Lillehammer, Norway. The house would have had to have started on fire to get me away from that TV set. Since that year, I’ve been crazy about the Winter Olympics. Needless to say when this fourth year rolls around, I am BEYOND excited to come up with some Winter Olympics homeschool ideas.

There’s so much to learn when the Winter Olympics come around! Between my love of learning with my kids and the Winter Olympics, my ideas start getting a little out of control! Think about it though, during the span of the Olympics, you could cover:

  • geography
  • world cultures
  • flag recognition
  • sports history
  • current events
  • maps
  • weather
  • art
  • and so much more!

Whether you’re looking for a full-on Winter Olympics unit study or just a few fun ideas to add to your homeschool day during the games, here’s a ton of ideas to help you have fun with your kiddos.

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Before you start reading this awesome-sauce-ness list of ideas, please do NOT try and add a bunch of these ideas on TOP of what you’re already doing for school. Do some of these INSTEAD of what you’re doing for school. One of the biggest frustrations I hear from readers is that you don’t have time to do all the things you want to do for homeschool.

That’s right. You don’t!

So, when something special like the Winter Olympics rolls around, put some of those regular things on hold for a couple weeks. It will be ok. Your kids will not forget everything. They will know the phonics book will come back, that the switch is only for a little while.

Don’t try to do everything. You can’t. 

But this is what homeschooling is all about–seizing the day and the opportunities we have at home without the structure of a school board telling us what we have to do and when.

Ok, enough talk.

Grab a few ideas and get going! This is going to be so much fun!Winter Olympics homeschool ideas

Winter Olympics Homeschool Ideas for Opening Ceremony Night

The opening ceremony night is so amazing. Seeing all those athletes march across the stadium carrying their countries flags…I love it! I also love seeing what they are wearing. It’s an Olympic fashion show too! Here’s some ideas of how to celebrate with your family on opening ceremony night.

The opening ceremony takes place around dinner time, so make it a Friday Family Fun Night with a fun dinner and opening ceremony afterwards! Here’s the plan:

Decorate:

  • Set the table with loads of miniature flags in vases down the middle of the table. THIS SET looks really good for centerpieces.
  • Create your own Olympic rings. I LOVE this origami version. Set these among the vases of flags.
  • Have kids create flag place mats. Use 12 x 24 inch construction paper to create flags from different countries. Laminate if you want to save them. Use as place mats for your opening ceremony dinner and then around the living room afterwards.
  • Show your team spirit by hanging or displaying the US flag over the fireplace or right by the TV.
  • String THIS BANNER of flags across the dining room or living room. Such a great way to celebrate!

Special Dinner:

    • Serve an interesting combination of foods from around the world. We use an older, out-of-print cookbook that was mine when I was a little girl. But these cookbooks look like great options.

  • Make some desserts from around the world as well to sample after dinner while watching the ceremony.
  • For a simpler dessert, just make some frosted cupcakes (use a boxed mix!) and add some flags on toothpicks. THIS SET is great!

During the Ceremony:

    • Hang up a world map right on your living room wall for the span of the Winter Games. Have kids find the countries as the athletes walk out. Our favorite maps are Pin-It Maps and I’m SO excited to use these for the Olympics because the kids will be able to mark and pin the countries as we see the athletes.
    • Gather globes from around the house–why do I have so many!?! Search for the country announced as the ceremony is happening.
    • Have kids look up the capitals of the countries as the athletes are announced too. Children’s Atlas of the World is a GREAT one for looking up info quickly. (Plus it’s a gorgeous book!)
    • Look up the countries as they are announced to see what language is spoken in that country!!
    • To celebrate the beginning of the Olympics, set up your easel or large tag board and create a chart to keep track of medal counts as the days go on.

Let the kids stay up late and GET EXCITED about the Olympics! 

I printed out THIS printable Winter Olympic schedule to make sure we don’t miss the things we want to see!

Winter Olympics Homeschool Ideas by Subject

GAMESCHOOLING!

Do you love games in your house? They are one of the best ways to “do school” without actually doing it. There’s so much to learn from playing games together. Here’s some games I found that will work great during the Olympics.

  • Zeus on the Loose // Great game for math skills and strategy. For ages 8 and up. PERFECT for further studying of Greek gods, which is also perfect for studying during the Olympics.
  • Flag Frenzy // Great game for learning the flags of the world! A family, fast-paced game.
  • Carmen San Diego game // This was another floppy disc game from computer class. I’m SO glad they’re bringing Carmen back in card game form! So much geography learning in this game!
  • Scrambled States of America game // If you loved the book, you will LOVE the game!
  • Professor Noggin’s Geography game // Just like the history games, the geography games are like trivia with a younger and more advanced option for questions. Perfect for homeschool families.

MAPPING

  • Pin-It Maps will be an AWESOME addition to studying during the Olympics! These map sets come with oodles of pin-flags that you can use in tons of different ways. A great addition and investment into your homeschool resource treasure trove because you can literally use these every single day for different things: literature (look up where the book setting is located), geography, history, the Olympics!

UNIT STUDY HELPS

We love unit studies in our house. You would basically not need to do ANYTHING else in your homeschool besides these studies and maybe add in math. Here’s a few that would work great during the Olympics.

  • Homeschool in the Woods Ancient Greece // We LOVE doing Homeschool in the Woods studies over here and the Ancient Greece study would be an awesome way to tie in the history of the Olympics. There’s a ton to do with these studies, but you definitely could pick and choose the main things you wanted to do and just stick to those things. Here’s a list of what’s included in the Greek unit study taken from the HITW site:
      • Creative Writing
      • A “Dining Out Guide” of Recipes
      • A File Folder Game
      • A “Scrapbook of Sights” for storing notebook projects
      • A Newspaper “Greek Weekly”
      • A “Snapshot Moments in History” Scrapbook Timeline
      • “Postcards from Famous Folks”
      • Souvenir Craft Cards with a dozen 3-D projects to make
      • Over a dozen Lap Book Projects
      • 8 Dramatized Audio Tours, over an hour of listening! Join “Trojan Horse Tours” as Graham (your tour guide) and Blaine (your coach driver) take you on various excursions, such as visits to cities such as Sparta, Athens, and Troy, a trip to the Olympic Games, and interviews with important people of history, such as Archimedes and Xenophon!
  • Amanda Bennett’s Winter Olympics Download ‘n’ Go study // We have done many studies by Amanda Bennett and they were always so fun. She provides a week-by-week plan of what you can cover with your kids about the Olympics. Download a sample of the study on her site as well.

LANGUAGE ARTS

  • Use a blank book to fill in narrations as the days go on.
  • Keep track of new words in your blank books.

HISTORY

  • History Unboxed // This is a special resource because it could be a subscription to receive monthly, but it definitely doesn’t have to be. You can purchase single boxes or save a little money by signing up to receive monthly–it’s up to you.If you choose to do a single box (which I would definitely choose for the Olympics so you can get the boxes that pertain to Greece), you can choose either:
    • Alexander the Great Box // In this box, you’ll receive everything you need to dive deep into the exploration of Alexander the Great, which would be a good way to explore the countries and how they’ve changed since his time. Great mapping activities! Here’s what’s in the box:
      • Follow in Alexander’s footsteps and solve the puzzle of the Gordian Knot
      • Paint by numbers to see how much of the world Alexander conquered
      • Learn about ancient medical practices and theories
      • Read about Alexander’s campaign and legacy
    • Ancient Athens Box // (This is the one I’m ordering for my kids during the Olympics!!) Here’s what’s in the box:
      • A geometric solids mobile kit including a wooden hanger, foldable geometric cut outs, cotton floss, beads, glue dots, folding stylus, and instructions.
      • An ancient Greek style bath kit including peppermint tea and lavender Epsom salt.
      • An Allegory of the Cave themed night light kit including a laser cut silhouette paper and votive candle
      • A coloring sheet featuring ancient Ancient Athens
      • An 8 page full color magazine about Ancient Athens including art, articles, book lists, and teaching resources

ART

  • Chalk Pastels Winter Games art videos // We are HUGE fans of the people at Chalk Pastels. Hello, Nana teaching my kids to draw gorgeous art pieces that they’re super proud of?? Sign. me. up! We’ve drawn scenes from the Nutcracker at Christmas time, pilgrims at Thanksgiving time and US landmarks during various history studies. And now we are going to add some Olympic art to our portfolios of chalk art.The course includes drawing the Torch, a gorgeous winter mountain scene, medals, and various sporting events like skating and skiing and bobsledding. SO excited to add this in over the weeks of the Olympics!

More Winter Olympics Homeschool Ideas + Resources

GREAT BOOKS FOR THE OLYMPICS

Below are some awesome books about the Olympics and Greek Mythology as well. We are planning on re-introducing many Greek Myths that my kids really got into a few years ago. 

Both options are great for learning during the Olympics.

AUDIO + EBOOKS

  • Around the World Stories is an awesome way to get some inspiration from different countries–perfect timing for the Olympics. You can download a whole year’s worth of stories OR just sign up to get one story per week. Really really cool because the stories come with a guide containing recipes, ideas and more to add to your cultural study.
  • Epic! Kids Books is another fabulous way to add in a ton of books to your child’s e-reader. Like Netflix for your Kindle! Great titles in here that would work great for studying different cultures around the world.

MOVIES AND VIDEOS

  • Cool Runnings is such a great movie about the Jamaican bobsled team. Available on Amazon Prime movie. 
  • Miracle is about the 1980’s Olympic hockey team.
  • Red Army // Documentary about the Soviet hockey team.
  • A YouTube Tour of the Buildings of the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea
  • Curiosity Stream is another AWESOME resource for videos and documentaries. It’s a great price (something like $3/month!) and you get oodles of quality documentaries on a HUGE amount of subjects and topics. There’s a whole bunch on Ancient Greece and Greek Myths you could watch throughout the Olympics!
  • Learning about how the medals are made is a really interesting thing to explore! We found THIS great video on the process of medal-making.

OLYMPICS SITES TO FOLLOW

The reason I like to pay some special attention to the Winter Olympics with my kids is because it ONLY comes every four years and that deserves some special attention. 🙂 I hope my kids have Olympic memories like I do. And I hope the Winter Olympics homeschool ideas have something to do with it too.

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