1. Olympic History and Culture Mini Unit Study

FundaFunda Academy offers a web-based mini unit study all about the history and culture of the Olympics, from Ancient Greece up through the present day and beyond. It will also cover the difference between the Winter and Summer Games, where the Olympics have taken place in the past, as well as when they have been cancelled, boycotted, or postponed.

Explanations of Olympic symbols, mascots, and logos are also included. There are even activities for making your own Olympic torch, mascot, and more! Additionally, FundaFunda Academy has a fun summer Olympics bingo containing things you could see or hear while watching the Summer Olympics.

This is just $5 and contains the assignments seen below:

Enter this giveaway to win one! If you purchase it and win, you will be refunded for your purchase

2. The Boys in the Boat Online Book Club

Literary Adventures offers online book clubs for middle schoolers and high schoolers featuring The Boys in the Boat, the story of an Olympic rowing team from the early 20th century. These book clubs come with instruction on spelling, grammar, and vocabulary. They also offer ideas for hands-on activities and engage students through critical thinking questions and writing projects.

3. Music of the Olympics

Music in Our Homeschool has a free fifteen-minute music lesson on the music of the Olympics. The lesson covers four Olympic classics: Bugler’s Dream, Olympic Fanfare and Theme, The Olympic Hymn, and When You Believe. Once you’ve taken the course, you’ll be able to recognize the pieces when you hear them in the Olympics!

4. Summer Olympics Digital Breakout

Digital breakouts are like online escape rooms, and this one is all about the Summer Olympics! It works through Google Forms, a platform that many people are already familiar with. It’s aimed at late elementary or middle school-aged children, but it can provide fun for all ages. Additionally, it comes with an answer key, so you won’t be left frustrated!

5. Official Olympic Resources

The Olympic Museum offers PDFs on a wide variety of topics from Olympic history to overviews of past games to fun activities. These PDFs are all free and are available on their website. They are a great way to get excited about the Olympics, and learn something too!

6. The Science Behind the Olympics

The U.S. National Science Foundation offers a number of videos on some of the science behind the Olympics. From the forces required in weight-lifting to the fluid dynamics behind swimming events, these videos can spark curiosity and answer the questions of eager observers.

7. 2024 Summer Games Handbook

This fun and interactive Summer Olympics Handbook comes with a plethora of mini studies to get you up to speed for this year’s Olympic games. From biographies of Simone Biles, Katie Ledecky, and Usain Bolt, to an dive into the histories of France as a whole and Paris specifically, there is something in this handbook for everyone! It is geared toward grades 1-6, but it sure to bring excitement and insight to the whole family.

8. Fanschool

You’re already making predictions about which countries will win which events, so why not make it official? By joining the Summer Olympics Fanschool, you can do just that! Enter your predictions before the opening ceremony, and receive points each day based how well your picks do. The top three winners in the U.S. will receive a Chromebook prize! This is completely free to participate in!

Hopefully, these resources will put you well on the way to finding answers to all of your Summer Olympics-related questions. If you have more questions that these resources do not answer, post them in the comments below and we’ll take a look. Happy learning!

The post Online Learning Resources for the Olympics appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.

One of the ideas my sister came up with was for us to create a list of collective memories of our interactions with him over the years. 

As I started to sift through my own memories, I realized many of them related to him teaching me something. And I also realized that I had loved his way of teaching, and without being aware of it, had incorporated it into my own teaching style.

And I thought, it would be fitting, today, in honor of him, to share what I learned from him.

Let your children help you

We all know how much it slows one down to have a “helper”! But this is an excellent way to teach. I remember going with my dad into the darkroom he created, to help him develop his photographs. I also remember helpfully wanting to put the light on when he couldn’t find something in the dark!

And I remember my brothers helping him as he did woodwork in the garage. And then my one brother, as he got older, making things himself.

Letting your children work side-by-side with you is basically an apprenticeship! Showing kids what to do and then letting them do it, is an great way to teach.

Even today, this is how I train my virtual assistants. Instead of sending them videos of tasks I want performed, I get on Zoom and work with them watching, and then let them do it with me watching.

Challenge your children

I think my dad sometimes forgot our ages – and that was a good thing! When we were traveling overseas on vacations, he would assign us each a role: budgeting, trip schedule, navigation, taking the movie, etc.

It never occurred to me that this didn’t happen in other homes. Or that most people would consider that planning the trip itinerary for a vacation in Europe was not a job for a 12-year-old. (And remember – there was no internet then! I had to write letters to embassies to find out what they recommended, as well as use books from the library)

We rose to the challenge every time – even though our execution of the task wasn’t always quite what he hoped for. I do remember he had a business meeting while the rest of us took a boat trip around Manhattan Island, so only realized I was on the wrong side of the boat – and none of the footage showed the famous New York skyline – when he started editing the footage!

I discovered that expecting both my own children and also the students in my classes to be able to do more than people usually expect of children, has shown them what they can achieve,

Don’t expect them not to fail, and be ready to provide encouragement and help when they do – but please, do challenge them! My dad had confidence in our abilities, and that was a tremendous gift he gave us.

Be prepared to repeat yourself

I remember, every time I had a science test that covered electricity and magnetism, I would go to my dad and ask him to explain some of the concepts again. He would look at me and say “But I explained that last time”, and I would tell him that I needed it explained again. (The irony is that I am now the coach for the Circuits event for our Science Olympiad team – and still haven’t mastered the topic!)

But he did explain it again. And I have remembered that every time a student can’t understand an assignment (even if hundreds of other students have not had an issue with it). It isn’t so much a patience thing (neither he nor has that virtue!) – it’s more the realization that if someone struggles with a concept, they will need it retaught a few times!

Teach by asking questions

One of my favorite memories is traveling in a camper with my family all over Europe when I was 12. I remember my dad pointing out a glacier and asking if we knew what it was. And then he asked us a lot of questions about it – trying to get us to think scientifically. I was usually wrong, but I loved trying to get the correct answer.

He did that constantly as we drove around. He didn’t lecture us, but rather through a series of questions, engaged us, and helped us figure it out for ourselves.

Any students who have been in my co-op classes will know this is how I love to teach! I ask lots of questions. I sometimes offer prizes for the student (or team if they are working in groups) that gets closest to the correct answer. This style involves students in learning – and they are far more likely to remember what they learn.

Apply learning to real life

I have already given some examples of this. The help we had to provide in our overseas vacations required us to use research skills, understand foreign exchange, do math etc.

My dad also taught us personal finance by giving us an allowance when we turned 12. This really was an allowance – not “pocket money”. We had to purchase our own clothing, make-up, gifts etc – as well as pay for entertainment. My parents did cover all costs related to school and the sports we played.

I remember being so excited to get what I thought was a huge amount of money – only to realize how it didn’t actually go very far! But it taught me to budget, to look for sales, and to differentiate between wants and needs. It also encouraged us to find ways to make extra money. I learned a lot about accounting as a result as I earned money helping my parents do the accounting for their side business. And my youngest brother started a vegetable garden and made money selling the produce to friends and family.

This was such a successful way of teaching, that we used it with our own children and I would highly recommend all families consider the idea of an allowance for their teens.

I also use a version of this idea in many of my classes – we do stock market simulations in Economics and Personal Finance, and I use simulations as much as possible as I know from experience that participating in learning in this way is very very effective.

As I talked over with my husband what I planned to write in this post, I realized how much my dad had taught me about teaching, by modeling it himself. And the reason that I have copied so much of his style is because of how successful it was in my own learning. To this day, I am confident that I can do things I have never tried before and that has kept me learning and growing!

I hope my own children will think I did a good job of using the lessons my dad taught me – to teach them well. And I hope the hundreds of students I have taught over the years, and hopefully will teach in years to come, will also benefit from the teaching style my dad passed on to me.

Happy Birthday, dad!

The post Lessons on Teaching I Learned from my Dad appeared first on FundaFunda Academy.