Every year on February 2, millions of people ask themselves “What does the groundhog say?” as Punxsutawney Phil tries to forecast the weather for the next six weeks. Why do we trust a rodent to predict the weather? How accurate is he? What’s so special about February 2? And why does he have such a funky name?

(Photo by Aaron Silvers)

First, where did this bizarre tradition come from? The short answer is Germany, where local legend indicated that if February 2 was cloudy, spring was imminent, but if the skies were clear, you could expect a long winter. Somehow this merged with other local traditions involving badgers and morphed. Sunny skies resulted in the badger casting a shadow; cloudy days meant no shadow. When some Germans emigrated to Pennsylvania, they brought the legend with them—but due to a badger shortage, they substituted groundhogs. Frankly, there is no meteorological basis for the legend. Phil’s predictions over the years are right about 30% of the time—no better than guessing. February 2 sits right between the winter solstice (midwinter, the shortest day of the year) and the vernal equinox (a day with equal lengths of day and night). So, by February 2, daylight has started to make significant gains against the long nights of winter. It’s also the date of Candlemas—a celebration of Jesus’ presentation at the temple 40 days after his birth.

(Image from Punxsatawney.com)

These days, the “official” groundhog is a rodent named Punxsutawney Phil, named after Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania Punxsutawney Phil has been making official predictions from a hill called Gobbler’s Knob since 1887. He lives under the care of the Inner Circle of the Groundhog Club, who, in addition to interpreting his annual prediction from “groundhogese” to English, gives him a swig of the “Groundhog Elixir” which keeps him alive for yet another year. (I can’t think of a better reason why the same groundhog has supposedly been alive for over 100 years.) He is also said to be named after King Philip—and though it’s not clear which King Philip, my best guess is King Philip II, who was the husband of Queen Mary I (“Bloody Mary”) and later attempted to attack the English with his ill-fated Spanish Armada. Perhaps they named him after this king due to the role adverse weather played in the Armada’s defeat. If you want to celebrate, you can:

• Visit Punxsutawney for the official prediction.
• Have the prediction emailedto you on February 2.
• Find your own groundhog and . . . on second thought, never mind. Leave your local rodents alone.
• You can also find some fun printables, games, and lesson plan ideas at www.Groundhog.org/teachers.

I love to travel. Aside from the derailment of my schedule, the expense, the hassle of airport security with three kids, the planning, the food (or rather, my gut’s reactions to it), not speaking the native language, getting a house sitter, and all that other stuff that travel often involves, it’s great. Visiting historical sites, exploring museums, soaking up local culture, and buying souvenirs are all awesome. However, I am here to tell you that you can have all the awesomeness and none of the headaches using one simple tool: the Internet.

How to Take a Virtual Vacation

Prep Work:

• Decide where you want to visit. You can pick anywhere in the world, but realize that some places are going to have a lot more information available online. For example, Venice or Paris might be easier than, say, Mongolia or Kyrgyzstan.
• Plan the sights you want to see. Travel guides and blogs would be great places to begin looking for ideas. Museums, monuments, and famous landmarks are good places to start. Once you have a list, look for websites that have good information and lots of pictures! You might even start a Pinterest board for your trip to help keep track of your links. And don’t forget to check your local library for any good books they might have on hand. If you’re looking for some good websites to start gathering information for a virtual trip, you might try:
  • The CIA World Factbook
  • About.com’s Geography portal
  • Answers.com’s Geography portal
  • Your favorite travel blog or Compassion Blogger
  • Wikipedia (I know…I know.…It’s not always reliable, but it can be a useful place to start.)
  • The tourism bureau of wherever you’re visiting
• Ask good questions. “Why is this famous?” “When was this built?” “Who is this named after?” etc. Write down your questions—you don’t have to know the answers (yet).

Taking the Trip:

• Introduce your kids to the location. Tell them about it, and give them some initial reading (online or in a book).
• Read, look, talk, and play. Show your kids the websites, your Pinterest board, books you checked out, etc. Discuss them, point out great pictures, and have fun.
• Have an information scavenger hunt. Bring out your list of questions, and let your kids add to them. Answer as many as you can. You might even make a little competition to see how answers many each kid can find!

Relive It:

• Make a notebook. Treat it like a vacation scrapbook. Include things like a map of your (imagined) travel route; homemade “tickets” for your plane, train, or bus trip; printed photos of the locations you visit; notes, quotes, trivia, and stories; coins, stamps, and collectibles from the country; anything else you think would be fun or interesting. Bonus points if you send a Flat Stanley or find a pen pal in your chosen location.
• Slideshow time! OK, you don’t have to invite people over to look at slides of your vacation for an hour and a half, but do give your kids a chance to share what they’ve learned. A informal oral report will do the trick. Grab Dad after dinner and show off their notebook, laugh at the funny Photoshopped picture of Kris climbing the Eiffel Tower, and talk about the cool things they discovered along the way.

Happy Travels!