I'm going to be completely honest. Up until the week before school started I didn't even know there was an eclipse happening. However, I started seeing things shared on Facebook about our schools changing dismissal times for the day so that peeked my interested and I started reading more about it. The schools had decided to delay dismissal by 45 minutes so that the kids wouldn't be on buses during a time when 1) they might be temped to look at the sun without direct adult supervision and 2) other drivers on the road might be too busy looking up, creating unsafe road conditions for buses.
And so it began. The discussion and hype surrounding the eclipse began to grow and before I knew it that was all anyone was talking about. Even my Glee station on Pandora jumped on the bandwagon!
Well as the eclipse drew nearer and nearer I felt totally unprepared! It reminded of when the meteorologist predict snow for our area. Complete and utter mayhem. One of the biggest topics are the solar eclipse viewing glasses and whether or not the ones you purchased were real, fakes, approved and on the NASA list. Really?! People were seriously lined up outside of stores to buy these glasses last minute when they learned of a new shipment that had come in while others were meeting up in parking lots to sell extras they might have ordered. It has been a total frenzy, but the warnings about going blind if you look at the eclipse without the proper viewing glasses has been enough to scare anyone!
Another thing that is a hot topic is kids viewing the eclipse at school. Our PTA purchased eclipse glasses for all of the teachers/students, but only 3rd - 5th graders with a signed permission slip are allowed to go outside to watch. Kindergarten through 2nd have to watch indoors on a live stream while other schools are not letting anyone go out to watch. Our school had the kids wear yellow if they were team sun or black of they were team moon, which I absolutely loved. Boo-Boo was thrilled because any excuse to dress like a highlighter in neon yellow from head to toe is a good day in his book. The teachers are doing all sorts of fun activities today so I know it's going to be a memorable day for them!
The last crazy thing about all of this is the rush on items like Sun Chips and Moon Pies. Yes, just as if it were a snow storm and the stores shelves are bare on the milk and bread aisles, the same thing has happened with eclipse snacks. And I'm just as bad as everyone else because Heaven forbid my kids' classes not get to have a fun snack to go along with their eclipse viewing party! But hey, I love any excuse for a theme and a little celebration so I jumped on the bandwagon.
I'm planning to head to the school and watch it with my kiddos. We are in the 97% path, so not totally dark, but still is going to be a pretty cool experience.
To celebrate this fun event I decided to make a few eclipse themed treats to send it to school for the kids to enjoy. These rice crispy treats were super easy to make. I just cut out circles to represent the sun and the moon and sprayed it with spray food coloring and stuck them together with icing.
Follow us on Pinterest HERE.
Follow us on Instagram HERE.
No comments:
Post a Comment