If you can’t remember the last time you knew when Leap Year was, yet alone did anything special in honor of it, you’re in good company. I’m pretty sure that I haven’t given Leap Year a thought since the 1990s. But just because my bad, cynical self is too cool for February 29th doesn’t mean kids can’t enjoy it. We celebrate some random holidays and although Leap Day isn’t a holiday, it actually has a purpose. If you’ve never looked up its history, here is a quick glance at the highlights.
I keep reminding myself that these parts of life, like celebrating Leap Year, aren’t such a big deal to me but are brand new to my daughter.
So why not introduce her to the day with a special activity? It may be the first time – and last time – we ever do anything special, but I decided a simple time capsule of our life in 2020 would be a fun way to commemorate the occasion.
We started the activity with a brief history of Leap Year, which went mostly over her head – but hey, I tried. And then we got busy with the fun stuff.
Most cool parents do elaborate messages in a bottle or buried treasures in the backyard for a memorable time capsule. Unfortunately for my daughter, ours is made of a shoebox and stored in a closet. But she won’t know how lame that is until we pull it back out in 2024.
For the contents of that shoebox, I got a piece of cardstock and had her write down:
Her age
Her favorite food
Her favorite book/movie
Her best friend
Her favorite thing to do
What she wants to do when she grows up
On another piece of paper, I had her write four things she hopes to accomplish by 2024.
She then decorated both papers and included a few momentos: a Frozen 2 ticket stub; a picture of her with her best friend; her school picture; and a giant chocolate milk stain across the middle of her papers (because, of course).
I wrote my own note, highlighting a few of my greatest memories with her and her accomplishments so far in 2020.
We put all the items in the box and wrapped it in paper with a big label: “Do Not Open Until 2/29/2024.”
And that’s it. My daughter is 5 and easily impressed, so the bar was set low for me to introduce the idea of Leap Year. All the same, I think anyone, any age would get on board with making their own versions of a time capsule.
How do you do February 29th?
