By Dana Stewart, Director of Education at Sparkler Learning
I am a mother of two young children, and I am excited to share the Olympic games with my kids. As I told my daughter, watching the Olympics is a special treat because the games only happen every four years – and then we discussed how old she will be the next time they come around. I am admittedly not a huge sports fan, but we are excited to watch the Olympians compete. Not only is watching the games a welcome break from her much-loved cartoon shows, but more importantly, watching the Olympics together creates new opportunities for learning and expands their world view.
Here are 10 ways that we will learn, play, and create together at home as we root for the athletes in Italy.
- 1. Where IS that on a map? Look up the athletes’ home countries. How far is that from where WE live? What language do they speak there? What foods do they eat?
- 2. How many athletes do we see? There are 93 countries competing in the Olympics. The USA has 223 athletes, but many countries have just one or two competing. Count how many are competing for each country!
- 3. What IS persistence? The athletes had to practice a LOT to be their best, and sometimes they still fall. Talk about how they might be feeling, and how they find the strength to keep going. When do WE feel that way?
- 4. What sport is THAT? From Freestyle Skiing to “Skimo,” there are so many sports that we’ve never explored. Can WE create a new game of our own that combines two things we love to play together?
- 5. Let’s learn to say “Hello” in the different languages spoken by the Olympians! There are athletes from roughly 100 countries at the 2026 Olympic games — that’s a lot of languages spoken! Let’s learn to say “Hello” in different languages.
- 6. Let’s design our own Olympic Outfits! Team USA is wearing red, white, and blue, Team Italy is in snowy hues, and Canada is wearing topographical designs. If WE were going to design a uniform to represent OUR community, what would it look like? Let’s draw!
- 7. Baby Bobsled: Let’s go for a ride! Sit on the floor with your legs outstretched and lay your baby on your legs for tummy time. Pretend you’re sliding on the ice. My 15 month old is LOVING this!
- 8. Penguin Biathlon: Pretend to be penguins competing in the Winter Olympics biathlon! Let’s hold a small pillow or soft ball between our knees and waddle across the room to the basket. Toss in the ball and then waddle back. How fast can you go?
- 9. Animal Bobsled: Choose toy animals as “athletes.” Then work together to create sleds out of boxes and a track from a piece of cardboard propped against stairs or a couch. Now work with your child to time the teams of stuffed animal athletes as they sled down the track — two animals per sled!
- 10. Olympic Ring Art: The Olympic Rings symbolize athletes from all 5 continents and many different countries coming together to compete. Let’s make a sculpture inspired by the olympic rings! Let’s cut these cardboard tubes into rings. We can use paint or markers to color them blue, black, red, yellow, and green like the real olympic rings. Let’s use glue to create a sculpture with our colored rings! Should we arrange them flat on our paper or stack them high? Let’s create!
Find more Winter Olympics play activities in your Sparkler mobile app!
We are rooting for you, little athletes and scholars!
Note: All families in San Francisco with children prenatal – 5 years old can use the Sparkler app for free to access activities to play with their children, developmental screening to check in on their early learning and development, and connection to answers and support. Learn more at playsparkler.org/SF.