new favorite holiday

so, today is OBVIOUSLY leap day

...and though it may just seem like just one extra day shoved into the year, every 4 years...

well, its so much more… actually not, it really it is just that.

But yet,

i don't know why, 4th graders find this day FASCINATING

apparently.

we researched the history of leap year, did leap year math, learned about myths, legends, and traditions of other cultures and even pretended that we were reporters back when julius caesar made this business official. 

it was quite an entertaining afternoon. observe:

*julius caesar organizes leap year in rome, 45 BC

• of course BC brought up the whole 'before christ' series of questions, oh bother...
• “miss ward, was julius a little dude? you know like... LITTLE caesar? Haha

*In Pirates of Penzance, the hero, Frederic, is bound by contract to serve as an apprentice until his 21st birthday. Because Frederic was born on Leap Day, he won't reach his 21st birthday until he is in his eighties!

•  “miss ward that’s so depressing! how would you like to only be in your twenties but have the body of a wrinkly old person!”

*Women in Ireland have a special privilege on Leap Day: they can propose marriage to a man

•       “ooh! Miss ward its like the movie! Don’t you just love her dress in that movie, oh and her ring, oh yes!?”  wow

*Over the centuries, rules were created for Leap Day proposals. A man who refused a woman's offer of marriage had to give her a small present. A woman was supposed to wear red if she intended to propose on Leap Day—fair warning to her intended.

•       “MISS WARD IS WEARING RED!!! She is going to get MARRIED!” (dead serious…this girl got wayyyy too excited)
•       “so you mean a girl could just propose on leap day to tons of boys just to get presents? stupid.”
•  “miss ward you should do that!! Ooo can I come with?”
• "i dont think this is fair. i do NOT want some girl proposing to me"

*In Greece, it is considered bad luck to get married in a leap year. In India, it is bad luck for a happy occasion to occur in a leap year or month. In China, superstitious people believe that more accidents and mishaps occur during leap month, and that children born then tend to be "difficult."

•  “oh my goodness. Is anyones birthday in february? …oh phew! That would have been SO AWKWARD!”
• “speaking of awkward, its spelled awk-WARD. Haha GET IT miss WARD?”'
• "ahhh that must be why i forgot to eat breakfast this morning. bad luck..."

*We know that a year is 365 days, but it actually takes 365.242 days to revolve around the sun. That's 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 46 seconds. We can’t really add that extra quarter day to each year without messing up school schedules, alarm clocks, flight times, and just about everything else. Instead, we lump those extra quarter-days together into one extra day every four years to make Leap Year with 366 days.

•   “how do even they know that? What, did someone sit and stare at the sun for 365.242 days? then all dramatically starts yelling, Oww my eyes are burning!”

clearly, it just may be the fact that all 10 year olds are CRAZY, but it definitely made for an entertaining day. Clearly i have the...Best.job.ever. 

also this is great. crappy sound, but great