The Story of the Olympics by Richard Brassey

It turns out that today the kids have been learning about what I've been teaching all day at school - the Olympic values.  We had a very long chat about them all this evening, and I am now toying with the idea of trying to get some tickets for some of the events. There are still some available, and although the logistics of getting there with two children are challenging, there will never be an easier time for us to see an Olympic games!

This evening's story was, of course, Olympic themed.  We read The Story of the Olympics by Richard Brassey.  I bought it from The Book People, thinking that it might be a bit of a boring band-wagonny book, but that it didn't really matter, as it was also v cheap.  It turns out it's incredibly entertaining, funny and infomative.  I was thinking of just fobbing the kids off with a few choice facts, but ended up reading most of the book to them.

Probably a bit too wordy for very little children, but a definite winner, if you'll pardon the pun, for ages 5+.

I have ordered a couple more Olympic books, which will feature here soon.  For the educators amongst you there's an absolutely fabulous scheme of work produced by Oxfam called "Heroes and Heroines", available to download for free from their website.  There's a version for primary aged kids and one for secondary.  Lots of the activities would be adaptable for home-educators.  I used the first lesson with a Year 7 group this morning, and it worked really well, and certainly got the children thinking and discussing.