World Cup Activities For Children of All Ages

World Cup fever has hit the globe and all eyes are on South Africa each day, as world class football kicks off live to over a billion viewers, which has lead to the phenomenon of a 'World Cup widow'.
This 21st century anomaly has been coined to describe the millions of wives and girlfriends around the globe who won't see much of their husbands over the course of the tournament, as they'll be glued to the sets.

However it's important that as everyone gets involved, children don't miss out on the many fun World Cup activities that they can take part in too. Whether you're a mum or dad looking for ways to enjoy the World Cup as a family, or a school teacher wanting to take advantage of the unique learning opportunity the football offers, there are dozens of cheap or free activities that you can soon get children excited about.
First children have to find a reason to get involved in the World Cup and their country playing a game will no doubt be reason enough.

Hold a party and, if you can, stick the match on, in amongst other things like cup cakes they could decorate with their team's colours. When the match is playing, get them to play a scavenger-hunt style game; noting down players names, what number they are, when they appear and how many goals they score.
Football pundits will tell you that most goals are scored within five minutes of half time, so why not test this theory by getting your children to note down when all the goals are scored, and then collate the results in a colourful bar or line graph? The next best thing to being in South Africa at the World Cup is perhaps holding your own mini-cup.
If you're a teacher then it shouldn't take too much work to organise a little World Cup tournament of your own, and kids will love this opportunity to get outside and enjoy some exercise.
From colouring in T-shirts to making their own strips and providing half-time oranges, there are a lot of fun things you can add to the tournament.
Why not have a couple of children act as commentators, or even a manager? Back indoors, you can make technology work for you in getting children to take part in many activities which cover particular subjects, like maths and geography.
If you have a computer, use the internet to learn about South Africa and use a programme like Google Earth to get children to measure how many miles away their team is from home.
See which team has travelled the farthest and, if you or your school has a video camera, you can even make your own budget 'Match of the Day' style TV show.

One of the many World Cup activities for kids which can keep children busy all the way through the tournament is a World Cup Knockout draw.
First you make all 32 national flags of the countries that are playing, and then you pin them up on the wall.

Not only is this good arts and crafts, but it will really help children learn their world geography too. Once each team is knocked out of the cup, you remove their flag, until it's down to the final winner.

Of course, you could arrange the teams into their particular groups and even design a new World Cup-style logo for the game.