The Winter Olympics are here!  This year the Winter Olympic Games are held in Sochi, Russia.  The Olympics to me is a time where great athletes from all around the world get to compete with each other on the world’s stage.  For the most part these are not professional paid athletes with million dollar contracts.  They are hard working young men and women whose diligence and training will hopefully pay off with a gold medal.  When I look at these athletes and watch the blood, sweat, and tears that they put out I get inspired in my own life.  This type of competitive spirit and drive is something I hope to instill in my children as they grow up.  Being inspired to work as a team as many of these Olympic athletes do is a great lesson to teach young people.

    To get my kids inspired for the Olympics I was looking on NETFLIX for some sports themed movies where young people face challenges that they overcome through perseverance and teamwork.  Once such movie that I came across was “A Mile in His Shoes”.  This is a movie that stars Dean Cain and is about a manager of a baseball team that gets a new pitcher who suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome.  This really is an uplifting movie that can be enjoyed by the entire family.  It will make you smile, laugh, and cry as you watch the characters struggle and eventually succeed.

    If you in the mood for a good comedic as well as uplifting that the whole family can enjoy I suggest you check out “Air Bud: World Pup”.  It’s a pun on the world cup of soccer.  If you’re not familiar with the Air Bud series it is about a golden retriever named Buddy who takes on a role as soccer star and father.  We find out in this family-friendly movie that not only can Air Bud play basketball and football but he is also really good at soccer as well.  This is really a great movie for kids especially if they are into playing soccer.  Of course the movie is fictional since I’m pretty sure there is no dogs out there that can play soccer.  It makes the movie enjoyable since you really end up routing for this dog that has to save his children (puppies) and play great games of soccer as well.

    I began this article talking about the upcoming Winter Olympic games so it is only fitting to share with you the title of a great movie that is about figure skating.  According to an article I read a couple of weeks ago figure skating is America’s favorite winter Olympic event.  Well I’m not to sure about that statistic but I will say this movie that I recently watched on NETFLIX is very inspiring.

The name of the movie is “The Fabulous Ice Age”; this movie is actually a documentary that chronicles American touring ice shows that entertained the country for decades.  It is a really good movie to enjoy with the family and I highly recommend it.

    Overall there are so many great sports movies out there that are sure to get you inspired.  I’m sure we all have our favorites.  For me there is “The Miracle on Ice” which is about the 1980 United States Ice Hockey team winning the gold medal against the much-favored Soviet team.  Another one of my favorites is “Rudy”, about a young man named Rudy who despite his small size is determined to play football for Notre Dame.  It is a really heart warming story that is a great example of courage and determination.  There are so many more great sports movies out there I would love to hear about some of your favorites.

As Team USA goes for gold, there’s no better time than now to teach your children about inspiration, teamwork and competition.

To help you foster conversations with your family and as part of the Netflix Stream Team,  I have been given some suggestions to share with you on how to get the dialogue flowing.   A good place to begin is with our friends at Common Sense Media.  They have compiled a few key lessons you can teach your kids while tuning into the Olympic Winter Games.  The website additionally has a wonderful guide to watching the Olympic Winter Games events as a family featuring cool app suggestions that provide round-the-clock Olympics coverage, a list of good online resources, and more.

But the excitement doesn’t have to end with the closing ceremonies. We’ve pulled a list of Netflix titles that will teach those key Olympic lessons all year long.

For your Big Kids:

1. The Short Game

2. The Kid

3. The Pistol

4. A Mile in His Shoes

5. Winning Favor

6. The Mighty Macs

7. Like Mike 2: Streetball

8. Air Bud: World Pup

9. Air Bud: Seventh Inning Fetch

10. Air Bud Spikes Back

 

And Your little ones:

1. Super WHY!: The Tortoise and the Hare

2. Curious George: George Gets a Trophy

3. Bob the Builder: The Bobblesberg Winter Games

4. Angelina Ballerina: In the Wings

5. Caillou: Caillou Gets Active

DIY Gold, Silver and Bronze Medals

 

Award the winners of your own backyard competitions with these easy to make, oven-baked clay medals that can be used again and again. Click here to learn how to make your own.

Disclosure: I wrote this post as a member of the Netflix Stream Team.