Calendar Skills

I got this idea after reviewing the Saxon Math K book. Everyday, the text suggests letting your child make patterns with colors to mark the days on the calendar. We aren't going to use Saxon K after all. Norah would be bored to tears, since she has been introduced to most, if not all of the material with Bob Jones K4. We plan to go right on to Saxon 1, but we do need to continue working on her calendar skills in the meantime.

Norah has a little calendar I got her at the start of the year. I suggested the idea of making patterns by coloring the blocks different colors and Norah loved it. So, starting on March 1, she picked two colors: green and pink, and we've been alternating them every day. Next month, Norah has plans to repeat about five colors in a pattern. Whatever she wants.

We do this whenever we remember to: in the morning, before we officially start lessons for the day or at night before bed, if we had to be out all day. This gives Norah practice with several skills that come up quite naturally while we do this together.

Days of the week
"What's today?" or "When do we go to church?"

Months of the year
"Find this month. January, February, March... That's right. It's March." or "What is next month?"

Counting
"What number is in today's box?"

Time
"How many days until Saturday?"

Patterns
"What will we color the box today?"

Predicting
"What will we color tomorrow?"

Ordinal Numbers
"Today is the 1st, 2nd, 3rd... 12th. That's right."

Saying the Date
"Today is Thursday, March the 12th. What is the year? ...2009. So, today's full date is Thursday, March the 12th, 2009."

The other night at dinner, Dwayne asked randomly, "What's today's date?" I didn't know. Without even lifting her head from looking at her plate, Norah said, "March 11th." We were both floored.

This consistent practice works!