LEAP DAY comes around only once every four years, which really isn’t very often in the grand scheme of things. It dawned on me recently that, though this will be my son’s fourth LEAP DAY, we’ve never done anything to recognize this anomaly on the calendar. And, frankly, I am not even sure I have EVER done anything, as an adult or as a child, to commemorate LEAP DAY.
So, I decided that 2020 would be the year we’d make the most of LEAP DAY! But, I also know we have Bible, pre-Algebra, General Science and World Geography to work on plus we need to keep up with our outside activities. So I definitely needed to keep things simple. So, how do you keep things simple but make the most of LEAP DAY at the same time?
ONE: RECOGNIZE IT! This is so easy to do, and yet, I failed to do it in the past. All we need to do is just simply RECOGNIZE that there is an extra day this year and that it occurs on February 29th. When LEAP DAY rolls around, don’t let the day go by without drawing attention to the anomaly. That’s it. RECOGNIZE the special date!
TWO: LEARN ABOUT IT! Once I started down the path of wanting to celebrate LEAP DAY, in pure homeschool Mom fashion, of course I went immediately to wanting to LEARN ABOUT IT. So, I did a wee bit of research and LEARNED as much as I could about why we have LEAP DAY. Then I whittled it down to a child’s level and created a LEAP DAY Fact Pack, which you can snag here for FREE. It’s ten pages of informational text, comprehension questions, writing prompts and a crossword puzzle. Or you can LEARN about LEAP DAY with this in-depth article on Wikipedia or in a much simpler form with this great little video. I plan on having my son watch the video and then work on the Fact Pack to LEARN ABOUT IT!
THREE: ENJOY IT! Now, this is where you can really go crazy with LEAP DAY plans but you can also keep things pretty simple and still ENJOY IT. If you have little kids, you might want to stick with a frog theme and focus on all sorts of LEAPING activities. Play Leap Frog outside. Create a frog craft. Make a healthy or an unhealthy froggy snack. Color froggy pages. There are loads of other frog-themed LEAP DAY ideas on Pinterest! If you have bigger kids, you might want to forgo the cutesie frogs and focus on the scientific fact that LEAP DAY won’t occur for another four years and make a simple time capsule for your family to “dig up” on 02-29-24! The best part of doing the time capsule is that it will just about guarantee that you’ll make the most of LEAP DAY 2024! But no matter what you decide to do, just do something to ENJOY IT!
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Oh, I love activities like this! Such a fun way to celebrate the holiday.
Sounds like a lot of fun!
How fun! Honestly, I don’t know much about Leap Day, but you’ve intrigued my curiosity too! I’m going to do a little research and maybe impress my co-workers 🙂
Leap year is one of those days I have never even mentioned to my kids, really. I mostly forget the day myself. How fun to make it a froggy “themed” day! My little ones would love that!
I am loving all of the fun frog ideas! Leap Day is definitely a rarity – every 4 years is pretty long, especially when thinking about kids’ ages!
-Jennifer
This looks like such a fun activity pack! Great way to engage the kids with Leap Year!
This is a fun way to let the day just pass us by.
I never would have thought of this! Thanks for the great ideas 🙂
I’m going to print out that pack! My eight-year-old loves learning facts about everything, so he’ll get a kick out of reading about leap day!
Sounds like a lot fun and a great way to teach children about Leap Year! I’m grateful for the extra day!