Are you ready to “Spring Forward”?  At 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March, (March 11, 2012) we set our clocks forward one hour ahead of Standard Time. How happy are the kids with this change?  “Let there be light…and longer play dates!”

During the eight-month period of Daylight Saving Time, the names of time in each of the time zones in the U.S. change as well. Eastern Standard Time (EST) becomes Eastern Daylight Time, Central Standard Time (CST) becomes Central Daylight Time (CDT), Mountain Standard Time (MST) becomes Mountain Daylight Time (MDT), Pacific Standard Time becomes Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), and so forth.

An interesting fact about Daylight Saving Time is of its origin…instituted in the United States during World War I in order to save energy for war production by taking advantage of the later hours of daylight between April and October. During World War II the federal government again required the states to observe the time change. Between the wars and after World War II states and communities chose whether or not to observe Daylight Saving Time. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which standardized the length of Daylight Saving Time. There you have it…which translates….yet again…longer playdates.  And of course, it allows us to use less energy in lighting our homes by taking advantage of the longer and later daylight hours.