5 Ways to Add Family Fun to the Olympic Games

The Olympic Games bring together athletes from around the world every two years (or so) to compete in winter and summer sporting events.

Whether you are watching the Games live or re-living your favorite moments from the past, we’ve got some great tips to help make your Olympics watching even more fun for families:

1. Olympics Scavenger Hunt: Print out these scavenger hunt cards and keep your eyes peeled during the Opening Ceremony for the icons. Give prizes (or medals) for first, second and third to find an entire row, all 4 corners, or the full card!
2. Test your Olympic Games knowledge during the commercial breaks with an Olympics matching game that links a description with the name of the sport. Other commercial break fillers include a word search, a crossword and other Olympic puzzles.
3. What is a sporting event without snacks? Keep your foods Olympic-themed:

•  Olympic torches, made by filling cake cones with Cheetos or popcorn
• Olympic medals, using Golden Oreos for the medals and Fruit By The Foot for the lanyard
• Olympic rings, made by setting out plates with fruit snacks around the rims: Blueberries, Pineapple or cheese chunks, black grapes or blackberries, green grapes and strawberries

4. Decorate your home with chains of construction paper rings in the colors of the Olympics: blue, yellow, black, green and red.
5. Stage your own family Olympics with these great games:

• Ring Toss, by making rings of each color with pipe cleaners and tossing mini-marshmallows or goldfish into the rings
• Javelin Throw, by throwing straws into large bowls of different colors
• Torch Pass, by making a torch from a paper towel holder stuffed with red and orange tissue paper, then running a relay throughout the house passing the torch from family member to family member

NBC and Peacock provide hours of Olympics coverage before, during and after the competitions, so your family will have plenty of opportunities to get in on the sports action. Let the Games begin!