A Nod To The Olympics

Olympics. Olympics. Olympics everywhere. I think I got it. I think I know why...

Here is the actual link to the Kid World Citizen page where you can link your own Olympics post. Oh and if you do, share your link with us in the comments.  

Several weeks ago when Kid World Citizen posted this on my facebook page, I wasn't sure if I was going to join in the fun. I mean, on one hand what a great opportunity to get my blog out there a little bit (and what blogger doesn't want that?), but on the other... The Olympics has always been, in my mind, "just" sports, and while we are a very active family, we are not an athletic family. We know nothing about sports and to compose a blog post that was about sports seemed like trying to write a blog post about quantum physics, I just don't get it. 


As that day wore on, I started thinking about how we had read The Magic Tree House book, Hour of The Olympics when we learned about Greece, our very first country of this virtual tour.  I thought about how the very first Olympics were connected to a country that we had learned about, THIS in and of itself seemed like a good reason to do a quick stop at home between countries to talk about The 2012 Summer Olympics. 


THEN, (yes, there's more) I thought more and more about what The World Olympics really meant. I started to feel like it really wasn't about sports per se, as much as 204 countries from around the world, uniting in one location to compete on a platform which instills pride and camaraderie, and is not violent. When these thoughts came to my mind, I felt a great sense of pride flood into me. We are fortunate to live in a world full of countries that can put aside political disagreements, religious disagreements and philosophical disagreements to come together and create something so incredible. Something so beautiful. These athletes are creating a uniting level of pride and joy among not only their home country, but the world. As far as I can see, this is the closest thing to World Peace that I have been witness to. I know that sounds "hokey", but think about it. All around the world there are people sitting and watching. Yes, cheering for their home team, but all around the world, people are doing the same exact thing. To me this sounds like a quiet hush in the differences around the world. That is what I mean when I say that the world has been united.


Naturally, after analyzing the games to such a degree, I couldn't just skip over it. I wasn't sure what we might do, I have been trying to come up with a brilliant Olympics tribute for weeks. I have intentionally avoided other bloggers posts about what they are doing, because I didn't want to be influenced by other people's ideas. I wanted us to have our own. (I'm psyched to go look at them now!)


I gathered my littles around the table and we discussed The Summer Olympics. We talked about which sports were in the olympics. We talked about which countries were participating. They were blown away that 204 countries were competing! While, I never did have a great big idea of some crazy awesome activity for us (though I did contemplate trying to get my littles to put together a synchronized swimming routine, that was nixed when I remembered that we don't have a pool and they have only been to four swimming lessons). 


Aiden was the one who had an idea. He was really excited about it and since I hadn't come up with anything anyway, we went with it. He wanted to sculpt an archer, using the Crayola Model Magic that we got for our Panamanian Frogs project. Eliana opted for a swimmer. 

Olympic Swimmer 2012- Eliana

Summer / "Sumeer" Olympics 2012. 

I hope that you are all enjoying the Olympics and that you have taken at least one moment to realize how incredible it truly is for this many countries to meet together and create something that can bring the world together and fill it with pride.