Five Interesting Facts about Leap Year

As a kid, I always thought of Leap Day as odd because having 29 days instead of 28 in February was just weird and unusual. I never knew the reason why every four years we tack on an extra day so I had to investigate and educate myself as an adult. 

Here are some interesting and fun facts about Leap Year along with homeschooling prompts. Pick and choose which ones you’d like to share with your kids and then see what other interesting facts you learn about Leap Year/Leap Day. 
1.    The first leap year was introduced in 46 BCE by Julius Caesar of Rome.
… Have your kids either draw a picture or find and write about 5 more facts that Julius Caesar was known for.

2.  People born on a Leap Day are sometimes called leaplings or leapers and celebrate their birthday either on February 28th or March 1st during non-Leap Years and more than 4 million people around the world are leaplings/leapers.
… Have your kids do investigative work and find 5 historical people born on Leap Day.
… Older kids can pick one of those people and write a 2 paragraph essay on what they were famous for.

3.  Leap years also typically coincide with the US presidential election and the Summer Olympic Games.
… Have your children find out where the 2024 Summer Olympics will be held, what dates they will be held (and how many days that is) and what two events they would be most interested in watching. You could also have the older ones write a 2 paragraph essay on the facts that they gathered.
… Have your children find out who the current presidential candidates are and then have them find out how many political parties there currently are and which ones are the top 2.
… Older kids can choose one of the current candidates and have a discussion with you about why they do or don’t care for a particular candidate currently running. 

4. Without leap day, our calendar would be off by about 24 days every century, or every 100 years!
… Fun question to ask: Do you think that leaplings age every year or only every 4 years on their official birthday, and why?

5.  There are 525,600 minutes in a typical calendar year. On leap years, there are 527,040 minutes. What will you do with the extra 1,440 minutes this leap year?
… Math lesson: How many seconds is this? How many hours is this?