February 27th, 2012 at 5:00 am
By Kim Ross
On Leap Day we eat our meal in reverse – Dessert First, Salad and Appetizers last.
We do everything backwards that day – reverse the chairs, eating, using only the back door, wearing our pajamas backwards and sleep with our head at the food of the bed. The kids wear their backpacks on their front instead of their back.
After school we are going to do a fun scavenger hunt for little frogs I came across. I am going to hide the frogs around the house with some clues and facts about leap day and leap years.
Here are some of the facts and questions I will use:
- The egyptians figured out that it actually takes the Earth a little longer than a year to travel around the sun. As the extra hours accumulated an extra day was occasionally added to the calendar.
- Figure out how many leap years everyone in the family is.
- In Ireland, every February 29th, women were allowed to ask for a man in marriage. A man was fined if he refused the proposal. (Leap Year has been the traditional time that women can propose marriage. In many of today’s cultures, it is okay for a woman to propose marriage to a man. Society doesn’t look down on such women. However, that hasn’t always been the case. When the rules of courtship were stricter, women were only allowed to pop the question on one day every four years. That day was February 29th.)
- How many animals can you name that “leap”?
- For most Leap Years, a popular children’s rhyme holds true:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
February has twenty-eight alone,
All the rest have thirty-one,
that’s the time When February’s days are twenty-nine.
- 2012 is considered a Leap Year, while February 29 is considered Leap Day
- Play a game of Leap Frog
- Give the kids a Leap Day coloring page to complete
The last frog will be found with a new Jump rope for each of the kids. I came across this fun jump rope rhyme to teach the kids
THE JUMP ROPE RHYME
Leap Year, Leap Year
When will you be?
Every four years
Then you’ll see.
You want more?
We do too!
How many more
can you Leap to?
How will you celebrate Leap Day?