Calendar Ideas

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

One great way to expand your child’s awareness of time and math is by giving them a personal calendar.  We use two calendars to have fun with learning.  One calendar we like to use is the

Melissa and Doug Calendar.

It can be personalized each month by your children.  It provides a good exercise in counting by placing the magnetized squares in place.  It’s also fun to mark special events and change the months and seasons.

The other calendar we prepare each year is a twelve month calendar from a dollar store.  We go through the calendar and write family members’ names on their birthdays.  Toddlers and preschoolers might enjoy how we did this in earlier years---we cut out small photographs of each person and attached them to the calendar square with double stick tape.  We also mark holidays with themed stickers.  Another fun aspect of this calendar is we use it almost as a diary because daily events are written down for memory keeping.

We’ve found that using calendars specified for a child’s use is a great way to involve a child in planning.  How do you use calendars in your family?

Learning Activities for Last Year's Calendar

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9........

It's a Month of Math!

Are you looking for some ways to engage your children in math (in fun ways!)?  Use last year's calendars (wall calendars, planners, free samples, etc.) to encourage your child's time and math awareness.  Try these activities to engage your children in creative ways:

*Tear apart the months and let children put them back in order.

*Using the calendar grid, have children color code the even numbers, then use a different color to code the numbers counting by 5s and 10s.

*Cut out the days of the week and have children put them in order.

*Cut out squares denoting holidays and have children match them to the correct months.

*Cut out a picture from the calendar in three slices (or more depending upon the age of the child) so children can work on sequencing skills to arrange the picture again.

*Cut out a grid of squares, then have children match single, double, triple, etc. squares to develop awareness of adding.  For example, cut out a grid of 10 squares.  Provide single, double, and triple square grids so that children can place those on top of the ten spaced grid to see how numbers add up to 10.

Have fun!  Look to our next post on developing a calendar for this year with your children.

Let us know how you use last year's calendars with your family!

A Year Full of Holidays

A Year Full of Holidays, by Susan Middleton Elya, provides reading material about holidays as a little girl, Nell, celebrates her birthday in August.  She asks when her birthday will return so her parents tell her that there are monthly holidays that will help her pass the time.  We found this book to be a good way to understand the passage of time and how we celebrate various holidays.  Simple, memorable illustrations by Dianna Cain Bluthenthal add to the text by providing visuals that are easily understood by a child.  An added bonus is that the story is written in rhyme.  This is a book that is picked up various times during the year for a re-read as we approach holidays.  Enjoy!

Question Collection:

*What month is your birthday?

*What’s your favorite holiday?  What month is it?

*What picture would you draw for your favorite holiday?