Monday, February 29, 2016

Leap Year!

photo credit HERE


My whole life, I've always thought February 29th was the coolest day.

I mean...how you not love a day that only happens once every four years? I think the biggest fascination I had with the day was birthdays. When I was younger I really did think you only aged every four years, lol. As I got older, I thought it was way awesome that kids born on 2/29 could pretty much set their own birthdays during the non-leap years. Wanna celebrate in February this year? Okay, 2/28 it is. Want a March birthday this year? Okey dokey, 3/1 for the win. :D

As an adult, I still think it's fun to make a big deal out of the day. My boys played some math games revolving around the extra day (like figuring out how old they would be if they only aged on leap day, calculating how many leap days the average person sees in a lifetime, that kinda thing), and I loved googling some fun scientific and historical facts about the day with them.

Here are some facts that we learned this morning:
  • We would lose 6 hours every year, if we didn't have an extra day every four years.
  • Those leap year babies that fascinate me are called "leapers" or "leaplings."
  • Born on 2/29? There's an Honor Society of Leap Year Babies you can join. Launched in 1997, there are more than 10,000 members worldwide!
Pretty cool stuff. Anyone have any other nifty little bits of info about Leap Year to share? Chime in the comments below! :) 



Saturday, February 13, 2016

A review! - Science4Us and Time4Learning

It's been a while since I've reviewed anything here, so it's time, dontcha think? :)

If you've read any of my posts, like ever, you know we love Time4Learning (our core homeschool curriculum). We've been using the online program in a variety of ways, and for a loooong time. My 11th grader has been with T4L since 2nd grade and my 6th grader has been with it since Pre-K.

Even though we've had no complaints regarding what was available to us and when, I'm excited to talk about one of their newest upgrades. Science! Science has always been a favorite subject around here, and we all wish that this had been available when my boys were at the younger grade levels.

Time4Learning recently partnered with Science4Us to bring more than 300+ K-3 grade elementary science activities to their members. And get this...it's FREE!


Parents can opt in for the S4U material through their parent admin account. Until it's activated, the S4U button on the left is greyed out (like the playground button on the right). But once activated, the button turns colored so kiddos know it's active.

Once they click on the science button, they are taken to their dashboard (specifically for Science...no change in the dashboard for the other T4L activities).



My youngest (yeah, he's older than the program, but he was my reviewer/tester, lol) appreciated being able to work independently and know what has been completed and what's next.

Note the completed activities show a check mark, so he knows he's done with that one...
Even the quizzes are cute and engaging...
Like I said before, we wish this had been available when they were at the K-3 grade levels. It's cute and interactive (which meshes well with the lower level activities in T4L) and ultimately is a great addition to what is already our favorite homeschooling resource. :)