Fun and Unique Ways to Celebrate the Leap Year

Jen Vander Vecht Last updated: August 22, 2019 0 Comments

Approximately every four years, we lucky folks who use the Gregorian calendar get an extra day in February. Leap Years help to maintain the synchronicity between our 365-day calendar and the seasons. If we didn’t have leap years, eventually our summers would be in December and our winters in July (and even more eventually they would be back again).

This interesting quirk of our calendars has to do with the length of our planets orbit around the sun, so what better way to celebrate this extra day with the family than with a space-themed day of fun!

A brief history of Leap Years

There are a couple of great kid-friendly videos out there that explain what a Leap Year is and the history of how we humans figured it out. The What is a Leap Year? video is a good one, or for your really little ones, try this VeggieTales explanation.

Here are the (somewhat complicated) basics:

Our calendar has 365 days (most years), which works out to 8,760 hours. The earth moving around the sun, however, takes 8,765 hours, 48 minutes and 46 seconds. This means that over the course of 4 years, our calendar year slips approximately one day behind. Over many, many years this would shift the timing of the seasons.

So, let’s get technical: Every four years an extra day – Leap Day! – is added to our calendar to adjust and stay in sync. This solution isn’t perfect though, because it makes our calendar just a little too fast. To fine tune, we skip the Leap Year on every year that is divisible by 100 (Such as 1900, or 2100), except if that year is also divisible by 400 (like 2000) – then we still have a Leap Year. Phew! This balances the calendar fairly well… or at least well enough.

The basic reason why this is all necessary is that the spinning of the earth on its axis creates our day-night cycle (24 hours, give or take a few milliseconds) and our year cycle comes from the rotation of the earth around the sun. The spinning of the earth and its rotation around the sun are separate phenomena that are not linked; therefore, the day cycle doesn’t tidily fit into the year cycle, making tracking a “year” more difficult.

Aren’t you glad somebody else (Thanks, Julius Caesar!) sorted it all out for us?

Space cares nothing for our nice neat ways of categorizing and organizing the world, but it’s also incredibly awesome. Now that you know the basics of our Leap Year, there are many ways you can learn about, explore, and celebrate space this extra day.

1. York University Observatory

York University’s Physics and Astronomy department has an observatory that is open to the public – both in person and online. This Leap Day falls on a Monday, and Monday nights you can join the Observatory team online to see what parts of space they are exploring, make requests for objects you’d like to see (such as the moon, which is SUPER cool to see through their telescope – trust me!) and ask space and astronomy related questions to your hearts content.

You can find the Monday online viewing details at the York University Observatory site, and it’s a pretty easy process to join in on the group presentation and chat.

On Wednesday nights, you can go on the site, or look through the telescope in person! If it is a clear night, you can see some pretty interesting stuff up there in our area of space. There is still fun to be had on cloudy nights too – you can tour the facility and see their telescopes!

You can find more information about their Wednesday night public viewings HERE.

2. David Dunlap Observatory

For this one you’ll have to save your extra Leap Day for spring, summer, or fall. The David Dunlap Observatory is located in Richmond Hill and among their many smaller telescopes, they have the “big one” in the Main Dome – the largest optical telescope in Canada!

For kids twelve and older and adults, they have Star Talk nights where they have guest speakers, and several telescopes plus the big scope set up for viewing (weather permitting).

They also have family nights for kids seven and above that includes a special presentation in the Skylab and night sky viewing (weather permitting) through the big scope. If it happens to be cloudy, you can hang on to your ticket and come back on a clear night to take a look!

Tickets start at $8 and you can find more information on The DDO site. They also do school visits and after-school and weekend programs, too.

3. IMAX Hubble and Toronto Science Centre

IMAX Hubble is playing at the Ontario Science Centre and takes you through the distant galaxies and celestial bodies of our universe, and lets you walk in space among the astronauts. It plays every afternoon for the next several weeks and is narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio.

Make a day of it and rocket through the Science Centre, too! Just make sure to stop off at the Space Hall to check out the planetarium, Martian meteorites, black holes, and more!

4. Binge watch Cosmos: A Space Odyssey

This show gives me goose bumps when I watch it, and is worth some extra “screen time”. Astrophysicist Neil Degrass Tyson, one of earth’s most entertaining and engaging scientists and science-educator, hosts this amazing romp through the universe.

The show incorporates interesting graphics and story-telling styles to communicate exciting complex phenomena in a way that is compelling and addicting and easy to understand.

Find more information and watch clips from Cosmos: A Space Odyssey. The series is currently on Netflix, or can be purchased digitally on iTunes or in dvd format from Amazon.ca.

5. Have a space feast

If you’re sitting down for a marathon of Cosmos or another space movie (like Wall-E, E.T. or Men in Black) why not whip up some space-themed treats first?

Keep it healthy with Space Ship Fruit Skewers like these ones from My Kid Craft. Feel free to get creative and use any variety of fruits, veggies, marshmallows, cheese, and even bread.

Note: These are really easy, so you can probably get by just having looked at the picture.

Satisfy your sweet tooth and break out your favourite gingerbread or sugar cookie recipe and dress those men and women (boys and girls) up like astronauts, stars and moons, just like The Bearfoot Baker did.

Make some rice krispies, roll them into balls and decorate with sprinkles (Perhaps star shaped sprinkles? Or silver balls?) for some tasty Meteor Crisps.

Looking for something more savory? Take some advice from Good Life Eats and take some slices of cheese and use a star shaped cookie cutter for star cheese and crackers!

6. Make a space-themed craft

Options abound for an afternoon of space-themed crafting!

How about some Night Sky Play dough from Twodaloo? Or save up some paper towel and toilet paper roles for some Rocket Ships likes these from Crafty Morning.

You can also go more classic, and pull out that paper mache for some DIY planets! Whether you make one or eight (or nine if you include Pluto!) planets from our solar system, this is a good whole-day or multi-day project. The paper mache needs time to dry and you need some time between coats of paint. You can check out these tutorials from Instructables or Red Ted Art to help you get you started.

Or try this simpler craft from I Heart Crafty Things for painting planets (with the help of shaving cream no less) for some fun planetary crafting without the commitment of paper mache.

There are so many awesome space crafts out there, it’s hard to pick just a few. Take a look online (Pinterest is very helpful) to find ideas that suit you and your kids!

Have fun enjoying your extra day and exploring this wonderful bewildering universe of ours!

For more fun ways to celebrate your extra day, take a look at our Toronto Event Listings or our directory of Fun Things to Do with Kids in Toronto.

Jen Vander Vecht is a writer and soon to be full-time mom. When not crafting four different knitting projects at once, she can be found dumping ingredients into her slow-cooker, walking the dog, watching Doctor Who, or researching cloth diapers.

Fun and Unique Ways to Celebrate the Leap Year