Leap Day!

All months of the year have 30 or 31 days, but February always has less than that. In most years, February has 28 days. But every fourth year (mostly), February gets an extra day, so it has 29 days. This year, 2012, is one of those years and is called a leap year. The last leap year was four years ago in 2008; the next leap year will be 2016. See the pattern?

Some people call that extra February day, the 29th, Leap Day. And that day is today! I wish we could be in school to talk about it, but since it's vacation week, this blog post will have to do.

The extra day every four years has to do with the amount of time it takes for the Earth to go all the way around the sun once. We know that's one year, and a year is 365 days. But it actually take the Earth just a few hours more than that to orbit the Sun - it's about 365 ¼ days. A quarter of a day is 24 divided by 4 or 6 hours. And 6 extra hours every year for 4 years equals 24 hours - and that's the extra day, the Leap Day.

If there were no Leap Day, the seasons would slowly shift over time and, in about 700 years, we'd have snow in June and beach weather in December! Whoever thought of Leap Day was a really good thinker and problem-solver!