LEAP INTO FUN!
The earth travels around the sun once every 365 and ¼ days which, in bygone times, gave calendar makers a real headache. Julius Caesar solved this problem by creating a 365 day year, adding one extra day every fourth year, Leap Day, which makes a rare appearance in 2012. Before your bonus day leaps away from you, fill up your Leap Day with family fun.
LEAP DAY TUNES
Create a holiday CD of the #1 song on the Billboard charts over decades of Leap Days. Use this to leap into a discussion with the kids of how musical trends change and, sometimes, endure (note the emphasis on relationships in each song). In the mix of Leap Day top songs:
1932: “All of Me,” by Louis Armstrong
1964: “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” by the Beatles
1976: “Love Machine,” by the Miracles
1980: “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” by Queen
1992: “To Be With You,” by Mr. Big
2000: “Amazed,” by Lonestar
THE DOOMSDAY RULE
Teach older kids how to wow their friends and teachers by mentally calculating the day of the week given any date in 2012. This method, called the “Doomsday Rule,” bases the Doomsday—a specific day of the week used as a reference point throughout the particular year—on the last day of February. Since February 29 is a Wednesday, Wednesday is the Doomsday for 2012.
Now, to calculate where the Doomsday (a Wednesday) falls throughout 2012, memorize that:
- On even-numbered months (February, April, June, August, October, December), Doomsday is the number of the month. This means that 2/2, 4/4, 6/6, 8/8, 10/10, 12/12 all fall on Doomsday (Wednesday).
- Excluding January (due to the Leap Year), for odd-numbered months of 31 days (March, May, July), Doomsday is the number of the month plus 4. For example, March’s Doomsday (3 + 4 = 7) falls on Wednesday, March 7. May’s Doomsday (5 + 4 = 9) falls on Wednesday, May 9.
- For odd-numbered months of 30 days, Doomsday is the number of the month minus 4. For example, September’s Doomsday (9 - 4 = 5) falls on Wednesday, Sept. 5. November’s Doomsday (11 - 4 = 7) is Wednesday, Nov. 7.
Once you’ve established the Doomsday for any given month, the day on which any date falls requires little more than basic counting (but your friends might just think you’re a genius).
FROG FUN
To celebrate a day of leaping, have a frog-themed party.
Food: In the morning, serve lily pad pancakes made of green batter (a few drops of food coloring will do the trick).
Games: Using your Leap Day Tunes mixed CD, play a game of musical toad stools, like musical chairs.
Movie: Be a toad on a log and watch Disney’s The Princess and the Frog or an educational Leap Frog DVD.
Leap and Bounce: Visit one of Kansas City’s kid-friendly bounce houses. Jumping Jax, Leaping Lizards, Monkey Bizness and Pump It Up are local favorites.
Photo Op: Line up your kids and, on your count, tell them to jump and kick up their feet. Freeze your family mid-air in a whimsical leaping photograph.
Clean-Up: At night, turn the bathroom into a swamp with green streamers and croaking frogs (download swampy sounds on your I-Pod). Fill up the bathtub with water, water weeds (leafy artificial plants) and frogs (look for frog loofahs and water toys) and place green and blue glow sticks under the water. Turn out the lights and let your tadpoles splash around in the bathtub bog.
Wendy Connelly is an author and mother of two little tadpoles in Overland Park.