Read About One Of The Original Olympic Athletes

Tuesday, August 12th @ 6:02 PMpost viewed 584 times

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Like their modern counterparts, ancient athletes had a way of capturing the public's imagination. Several ancient authors such as Pindar, Pausanias, Strabo, and Dio Chrysostom record the noteworthy exploits of some of the best-known Olympic victors of ancient times.

This article tells the story of Milo, one of the first Athlete Heroes of the Orignal Olympic Games.Your child can see what they thought of athletes in the past. Have your child read the article. You can also print out the article for them to read if you like. Once finished, here are some discussion questions and ideas:

• Were the Olympic Games back then as important as they are today?
  
  
• What do stories like these from the past tell us about life during that time?
  
  
• How did athletes see themselves?
  
• Did they see themselves as ordinary people, or something more?
  

The formal curriculum includes PreView Worksheets to make your child an Active Viewer/Active Learner while vireing the website as well as vocabulary worksheets, discussion sheets, new concept sheets and more.

NOTE: By doing the Active Learner lesson before they see the website, your child will become interested in the material, and actually read to understand. As a passive observer/learner, sometimes the words blur together, and many of the messages are missed. So it's important your child be an active listener and observer, and therefore an Active Learner.

The formal curriculum also includes worksheets to help your child take what they heard, and formulate a plan to analyze mistakes and failures.

All formal curriculum includes written worksheets as well as Discussion Portfolio Sheets for recordkeeping.

Current Members, you can find this curriculum in the main curriculum list.

If you are not a member, you can get this and all the curriculum on this website (yup everything, all 300+) for only $19.95.

 

 

Are The Olympics Too Commercial

Tuesday, August 12th @ 5:58 PMpost viewed 64 times

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During this Olympic season, you may hear from announcers, critics, commentators and even athletes that the Olympic games are too commercial, too political, too "professional." Or that the judging is too nationalistic.

It's easy to assume that the ancient Olympic Games were different, that ancient Greek athletes were pure in mind and body, that they trained and competed for no other reason than the love of physical exercise, fair competition and to honor their gods.

But is this really true?

This article talks about the original Olympic Games and jjust how much things have changed. Have your child read the article. You can also print out the article for them to read if you like. Once finished, here are some discussion questions and ideas:

• What ways do you think today's Olympic Games are commercial? What companies can you identify?
  
  
• Can you see ways that the Olympic Games are nationalistic?
  
  
• What ways were the original Olympic Games commercial or nationalistic?
  

The formal curriculum includes PreView Worksheets to make your child an Active Viewer/Active Learner while vireing the website as well as vocabulary worksheets, discussion sheets, new concept sheets and more.

NOTE: By doing the Active Learner lesson before they see the website, your child will become interested in the material, and actually read to understand. As a passive observer/learner, sometimes the words blur together, and many of the messages are missed. So it's important your child be an active listener and observer, and therefore an Active Learner.

All formal curriculum includes written worksheets as well as Discussion Portfolio Sheets for recordkeeping.

Current Members, you can find this curriculum in the main curriculum list.

If you are not a member, you can get this and all the curriculum on this website (yup everything, all 300+) for only $19.95.

 

Olympians Show Us How To Learn From Our Mistakes

Wednesday, August 6th @ 3:42 PMpost viewed 212 times

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Get the Flash player to see this player or just click here to access this file without streaming.

Learning From Our Mistakes (Olympian Style)

Charmaine Crooks was chosen as one of the “Top 50 Women of Power” in the country, Five-time Olympian and 1984 Olympic silver medallist. Crooks won gold medals at the Pan American, Commonwealth, World Cup and World Student Games.

There is an old tale of a young man that was granted an interview with one of the most successful business men of the time.

His first question to the older successful man was, “Sir, what is the secret of your success?”

The older man leaned back in his chair, and replied, “Two words son, two words: correct decisions.”

This seemed too obvious, so the young man asked the older man, “How do you know what are the correct decisions?”

The older man looked straight at the younger man and with a smug look uttered, “One word son, one word: experience.”

Now the younger man started to become frustrated. The answers were too easy. Of course experience, and correct decisions, but what was the secret? So the younger man politely asked the older successful man, “I understand all those things, but how do you get that experience?”

It was then that the younger man discovered the secret. The older man, leaned forward, and with a glint in his eye told him the secret, “Two words son, two words: wrong decisions.”

In a flash, the younger man understood.

The only real failure, is failing to learn from failure.

Therefore, the secret to success is to learn from your mistakes!

Learning from mistakes is the hallmark of any great athlete, and of course you could never get to the Olympic Games without learning from your mistakes.

This is one of her training videos on Learning From Your Mistakes. Here are some discussion questions and ideas:

• Have your child watch this video, then discuss some of the ideas that Charmaine Crooks goes over.
  
  
• Can your child think of any recent mistakes?
  
  
• What did they learn from that mistake?
  
  
• Were there any other things they could have learned?

The kind of mistakes you make define you. The more interesting the mistakes, the more interesting the life.

If your biggest mistakes are missing reruns of tv-shows or buying the wrong lottery ticket you’re not challenging yourself enough to earn more interesting mistakes.

-Scott Berkun

The formal curriculum includes PreView Worksheets to make your child an Active Viewer/Active Learner while watching the video.

NOTE: As a passive observer/learner, sometimes the words blur together, and many of the messages are missed. So it's important your child be an active listener and observer, and therefore an Active Learner.

The formal curriculum also includes worksheets to help your child take what they heard, and formulate a plan to analyze mistakes and failures.

These are Experience Sheets that your child can use to think about, and analyze their different experiences. The idea is for your child to begin to think of events in their lives as experiences, and to take something positive away from every experience.

All formal curriculum includes written worksheets as well as Discussion Portfolio Sheets for recordkeeping.

Current Members, you can find this curriculum in the main curriculum list.

If you are not a member, you can get this and all the curriculum on this website (yup everything, all 300+) for only $19.95.

Olympians Show Us How To Set Goals

Wednesday, August 6th @ 1:48 PMpost viewed 113 times

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Goal Setting (Olympian Style)

Barbara Kendall was an extraordinary olympian who used goal setting to go from a Dance School Manager to a gold medalist. Here she discusses the components of goal setting.

To get to the Olympic Games requires extraordinary goal setting to achieve those goals. We can learn a less from these extraordinary athletes on how to set goals, and how to achieve goals.

This is one of her training videos on goal setting. Here are some discussion questions and ideas:

• Have your child watch this video, then discuss some of the ideas that Barbara Kendall goes over.
  
  
• How can they apply to your child's life right now?
  
  
• Are there any goals that your child would like to achieve?

The formal curriculum includes PreView Worksheets to make your child an Active Viewer/Active Learner while watching the video.

The formal curriculum also includes worksheets to help your child analyze the steps of goal setting that Barbara Kendall discusses. This worksheets will help your child think about how they can apply these concepts to their own goals.

The formal curriculum also includes Goal Sheets that your child can use to create and achieve their own goals, from small goals to big goals. These sheets are based on Barbara Kendall's concepts and help your child break down the goals into an achievable process.

All formal curriculum includes written worksheets as well as Discussion Portfolio Sheets for recordkeeping.

Current Members, you can find this curriculum in the main curriculum list.

If you are not a member, you can get this and all the curriculum on this website (yup everything, all 300+) for only $19.95.

The 2008 Beijing Olympics

Wednesday, August 6th @ 1:09 PMpost viewed 301 times

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With this 2008 Olympics being in Beijing, this is a great opportunity to introdue your children to a little bit of Chinese Culture as well as the original Greek Culture.

So we've put together a fantastic collection of curriculum, and we will continue to add to in the weeks to come. So keep checking back here for fun activities for your children.

If you are not an eFantasmic Member, that's okay. There is still lots to do, and activities to explore.

If you are an eFantasmic Member, you can get formal curriculum, portfolio sheets and more for all these activities.

If you are not a member, and are interested in joining, you get all the formal Olympics Curriculum, plus everything else on this site for only $19.95 per month.

If you are not a member, don't worry. There is still PLENTY of fun stuff for your kids. Read on!

There is a wealth of information on the current and past Olympics at the official website www.Olympic.org. There you will find more videos like the ones posted here.

NBC is also hosting the latest news and imagery from the current olympics at a special website nbcolympics.com.

We will be posting more and more curriculum and interesting tidbits as time goes on, so keep checking back here!