Olympic Fever

So, this is getting old. I really need some way to motivate me to continue to blog. I want to be able to document our progress and experiences and it's just not happening. I knew I would have problems with this. I really do not think I am organized enough to keep up with the documentation needed for homeschooling. Ugh! But I will do my best. At least I have started journals with TJ and I've been dating the work he's been doing. And I've been taking pictures of experiments and field trips. So I am not totally lackng.

Anyway, knowing how unorganized I am, unofficially started schooling in the summer. I figured it would give me time and allow me to ease into schooling. And starting earlier would also give me extra days so that if I were lazy - as I expect to be - and skip days, getting a head start would take care of it. The Summer Olympics were this year. I convinced TJ to have an Olympic themed birthday party. More on that later. I also thought it was the perfect springboard for a unit study. TJ and LJ were exposed to various sports that they would have never known about until they were much older had it not been for the Olympics. That first day of events, TJ and LJ were "playing" volleyball in the house - to Daddy's dismay. lol We kept a tally chart of the Olympic Medals. It was an easy way to work on math skills. TJ was practicing his addition and subtraction skills. And it was a great way to introduce tally marks. I have yet to use it in a bar graph. I have also taken this opportunity to introduce countries from around the world. I borrowed numerous books about different countries and have been slowly reading them to TJ. In our Social Studies journal, he has a map of the country. TJ has also drawn the country's flag. TJ has also noted what animals and crops the country is known for. The countries we have visited so far are China, Russia and Germany. So many more to go!

So anyway, TJ turned 5 this year. While it is so much fun to plan, it is also hard to figure out a great theme for TJ's birthday parties. He keeps asking for these character based themes that I really do not want to do. TJ actually asked to do Cars or Hot Wheels again. Not again! Then he suggested Blue's Clues, Thomas... I was like, huh? No, how about Olympics? He knocked down the idea right way. Of course, TJ didn't know what the Olympics was. I let it go and approached him with the idea a few more times. Finally, it was getting down to the wire where I had to send out the invitations out already when I convinced him of the idea. I sold him on having "contests" of who is the fastest, who can throw the hardest, the farthest. I think TJ really liked the idea of that. So off I went to plan to my heart's content. lol I spent a lot of time researching online all sorts of different Olympic party ideas. I have scoured the internet in search of different invitation ideas. I have searched for menu ideas. I have looked for different events to have at the party. I sent out invites with patriotic note paper I found at Party Fair. On the invitation, we invited his friends to "Let's go for the Gold with Team Tyler!" I stated that the games will be held at Olympic Village aka our house. I included the cute phrases associated with the Olympics - opening ceremony, games will be held, olympic village, athlete registration. Funny thing was that a friend told me her husband saw the invite and thought "cool, there's a new playplace called Olympic Village in OB?" lol Another friend told me she thought the same thing until she saw the address. I also ordered goodies from my favorite supply place - Oriental Trading! I also try to have crafts at the parties. A great way to do this for the Olympics party was to incorporate the opening ceremonies. I wanted the kids to make flags and do the athlete march. I found these cardboard flags on Oriental Trading. Perfect! And I also found all sorts of patriotic themed items to give out as goodies. As decorations, I found little USA flags to line the backyard like we did for TJ's Cars party. I originally ordered international flags but they were sold out. :( To make up for that, I printed out flags from around the world. I also had Daddy and Uncle K help out. :) These flags were just taped on the fence along with the 5 mascots of the Olympics - Bei Bei, Jing Jing, Huan Huan, Ying Ying and Ni Ni. There's so much more to write. I will post later.