Like most people in the country, my family and I have been spending a lot of time in front of the television watching the Summer 2012 Olympics. Although we normally don’t really watch that much TV at all, this is a special occasion and one that I normally don’t miss. While we’re currently on vacation, we’ve made it a point to watch at least a couple of hours a day when we get back to our hotel room at night.
We’ve mostly watched swimming and gymnastics. While my daughter was only 2 years old during the last Olympic Games, she just turned 6 and is totally into the games, especially because she’s been doing gymnastics herself for a few weeks now.
But besides the thrill of watching all the different athletes compete against each other and go for the gold, the Olympics are a great way of teaching children about other cultures. From the names of the countries represented to their flags, languages and national anthems, the games present an excellent opportunity for you to teach your kids something new in a fun and exciting way.
I try to show my daughter where each of the winners comes from by using a world map. We’ve also talked about each country’s flag and we’ve definitely talked about the language spoken there. I must say she’s been loving it and it has made watching the Olympics that much more fun!
Roxana A. Soto is the co-founder of SpanglishBaby, the go-to site for parents raising bilingual and bicultural children. She’s currently working on her first book, based on her blog, to be published in September. Roxana is also a staff writer for MamásLatinas.
