What the Olympics teach us

One of the first lessons learned is math. You learn how to take the scores and add them for the composite score. You can teach your children greater than and less than, when trying to determine where the athlete falls in the medal race or how much faster is this person than this person. While watching the figure skaters you can teach them a triple means three and to count how many times the figure skater turns. For the more astute mathematician you can even go into probabilities. You can also teach them roman numerals as the XXI often pops up on your screen. The opportunities for math are pretty much boundless in all of these sports, and the best part is you don't even know you're learning (unless you go into the more complicated math).

Geography of course is another main lesson. As you here the different countries and see the different flags, pull out a world map and show your children where to find that country. There's always a few countries I don't even know, so it's nice to figure out where they are. For instance I never heard of Georgia before this year, so of course my first thoughts went to the Southern United States. On the same token, there are some I've heard of, but would not have an idea where to pinpoint it on a map. If you do pull out the map, it also teaches the kids about legends and grids. Always a bonus!

Vocabulary. Redemption is a big word at the Vancouver Olympics. Many athletes are coming back from injuries to try and win, or better their score. Some are trying to improve their standing such as the Chinese Pair Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo, who had never been able to achieve gold until now. Not only did they redeem themselves, they ended the Russian dominance of gold in pairs figure skating. Some other words: Perseverance. Mogul. Curling. Biathlon. The games are abound with new words.

Memorization is another way to drill in information. Keep asking your child if Italy received 75 pts now, are they ahead of Germany and the United States who went earlier? Remember scores, names, faces and country flags. When the athletes are up on the medal podium, have them try to remember what the name of that countries national anthem is, or if it's the United States, have them sing our national anthem, to help them memorize it.

Pride. This one pretty much speaks for itself, but can be hard to explain. My daughter asked me why they only play the national anthem for the country that receives gold and why that makes many athletes cry. I did my best to explain that winning gold at an Olympics is the highest honor an athlete can receive. It also shows pride in your country, and in many cases your family. So many of the athletes talk about how their family shaped them. Such as the Canadian Alexandre Bilodeau who won gold in Men's Moguls and contributes his drive to succeed to his brother who has cerebral palsy.

Opposite of pride there is also humiliation. This usually comes from the athlete who knows he could have done better and for whatever reason, did not do as good as expected. Usually it's just seen by an athlete's tears, or every now and then a screaming coach. On very rare occasions you have the athlete that thinks they deserve the gold when they got the silver, and reacts badly to receiving their medal. They walk off the podium, they tear their medal off or maybe even take a strike at the gold medalist. As sad as these things our, they are perfect lessons to teach our kids that winning isn't everything and that even making the medal podium is a feat in itself.

Perseverance. I don't how many times we watched figure skaters fall and get right back up, many of them acting like it never happened. Same thing in the Moguls, and those crashes seemed even more serious. Yet they would still get back up and finish the race. They kept trying, and that is a significant teaching everyone should learn. Even the professionals fall and can get right back into the game.

Rules. Every sport has them and every sport is judged by them. It's a great way to advise our children that breaking rules have consequences. If a hockey player breaks a rule, they get a "time out" in the penalty box. If a figure skater does a single instead of a triple toe loop, they get points docked. In some cases, I can't remember the sport, not following the rules results in no score. Speed skaters can't push another player out of the way, or they are disqualified. Rules are a pain, but they are there for a reason.

Weather/ice conditions. Skiing has been delayed for over 4 days because of rain and fog on the hill. This provides a chance to explain to kids why it's not good to compete in these weather conditions and what the perfect weather would be. Similarly, ice conditions at the speed skating rink were not acceptable to the coaches, and out of three zamboni's in the arena, not one would work to the degree they needed it to, postponing the race.

Finally, you also learn that this is real life and anything can happen. Such as Apolo Ohno's recent silver medal and J.R. Celski's bronze medal in the 1500m short track. The race looked wrapped up, with South Korea getting 1st, 2nd and 3rd, Apolo and J.R. just missing the podium. However in the very last turn of the race, one South Korean tripped and took out the other, leaving the way open for Apolo and J.R. to take silver and bronze.

Whoever knew that watching the Olympics could lead to so many lessons, in such a fun way? The biggest lesson we should take away from the Olympics though, is, even though we are separate countries, separate people, we should all cheer for each other for that is part of what the Olympics are all about.