It's Leap Day!

Last night Faith asked me what Leap Day was and why do we do this?  My answer was "Something to do with keeping the years even".  Faith's reply, "Huh?".  This morning, I decided that maybe I should find some real information about Leap Day.  Yep, I know...last minute as always.  But, better late than never.  So, here are a few links and interesting facts about Leap Year:

1.  Our solar year is 365.24219 days. Since our calendar does not deal in partial days, every four years, we add an additional day to February. Therefore, our calendar year is either 365 days in nonleap years or 366 days in leap years. A leap year every four years gives us 365.25 days, sending our seasons off course and eventually in the wrong months. To change .25 days to .24219, we skip a few Leap Days every one hundred years or so.

2.  A little story about the confusion before Leap Day, click here.

3.   Some more interesting facts, click here 

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4.  Here's an interesting looking site that we are going to explore today, click here

So, if you are last minute like me or planning ahead for the next leap year (not like me), I hope you enjoy the links.  Happy Leap Day!

Nutrition Fun

I'm always amazed at how much Faith retains when we introduce a new subject.  

When we finished this lesson, she immediately went to Grandma's room to "teach" her too.

This week,we learned a little bit about good nutrition.  If you haven't visited www.homeschoolfreebieoftheday.com you are missing out on some good resources.  

This is where I came across a couple of nutrition freebies that became a huge hit!  

First we learned about the USDA recommended food pyramid.  We did a little cut and paste project with this.  Faith caught on real quick to which foods go where.  

Click here for the free print out.

Next, we compared three different food pyramids and discussed the differences along with our thoughts about which one seemed like the healthiest guide to follow.  Faith and I decided that the Willet's Food Guide Pyramid is the one we would like to try to follow; currently we stick closest to the USDA guide.  

Last, we made a pyramid depicting all three guides.  This was a very easy 

project which we both enjoyed.   

Click here for the free print out.

Another successful, enjoyable, home school afternoon. :)

A look ahead:  Summer Learning:  Planting and Harvesting a Heirloom Seed Garden
                         Essential Oil Giveaway!

Music Fun

Among other things, we had some music fun today.  Over the past couple of weeks we have been learning and singing some of the old time classic songs.  You know, the ones every 1st grader has learned since the beginning of time.  There is a bunch of them listed in this wonderful resource book:

What Your First Grader needs to know

So, we were singing along just fine when we came to the song "On Top of Old Smokey".  I couldn't remember the tune.  After some crazy attempts Faith finally recovered from laughing hysterically at me and said, "Why don't we look it up on YouTube?".  Oh...good idea...why didn't I think of that?

We found "On Top of Old Smokey", and a bunch more.  Our music class lasted over 1 1/2 hours today.  Just one more thing to LOVE about learning with Faith. :)

Here are a some links to our favorites today:

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

She'll Be Coming Round the Mountain

Enjoy!