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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

And the Gold Medal goes to......

The summer 2012 Olympics Games start soon! July 27-August 12 in London, England.  Fun fact: did you know that the trampoline is an Olympic sport?! Our little friends could be Olympic athletes with all their practice on the trampolines! Just keep practicing those front flips :)
 http://www.trampolinesafety.com/News-and-Events-Articles

In the spirit of the games, we decided to have our own little Olympic competition.  What kind of competition can you have with kids under 5 you ask? Obstacle courses and relay races of course!
We made the start and finish line with masking tape. Then the kids had to divide up into 2 groups.  They had to race to the finish line and back doing different challenges, such as: hopping on one foot, crawling, somersaulting, running backwards, etc.  We even mixed it up with hula hoops. They were to run to the finish line, hula hoop, then run back.  The kids LOVED it!

We made our obstacle course using chairs and hula hoops.  If we were outside, you could use the park, benches, or running around trees, etc.  There are so many different options.  For summertime, using pools and sprinklers would be a great idea.  Kids love anything to do with water and getting wet!

After we were done with our Olympic competitions, we had our kids make their own gold medals.  I printed off a gold medal template, and had it copied onto yellow card stock.  They then got to color and cut it out.  We punched holes on the top, big enough to get the 1" rainbow ribbon through it, and stapled the ends together. 
And here is our finished product....
And here is two of our mini Olympic Gold medalists....Pablo and Lizzy!
This is just one great idea for birthday parties, or to get your kids active for the summer.  Kids love being physically active and should be for at least 60 minutes per day.  Activities should be easy and age-appropriate, but yet will still challenge them.  You would be surprised at what your kids can do if you give them the opportunity!

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