Months of the Year

I picked this topic because I noticed that another almost three year old knew her birthday.  Lauren knew her birthday is in August, but not that it was the 23^rd.  It is my philosophy to never approach the kids with something to master without understanding the nature of it.  I really like to think of teaching your child as if you were teaching an alien.  You would never tell an alien, hey, memorize these month words and here are some cartoonish pictures to ease the monotony of your memorization.   The most important part would be to explain the nature of months, memorizing the names is secondary importance.  However, in a practical sense of having the month names memorized, I have discovered that an understanding of the subject really lends itself to better memorization.  Also, there is a really wonderful benefit to me, a lover of philosophical thinking, it gives me the chance to research it and analyze it myself!  I was tickled that just hours ago, Lauren was on the phone and her Godfather said, “Hey, your birthday is coming up soon!”  And Lauren started laughing and said, “No silly, my birthday is in August, and it’s June!”

I hope how simple it was to teach this isn’t disappointing; but here it is!

Tuesday

My introduction conversation:

If I wanted to tell someone what your birthday is, what would I say?   I would say, August 23^rd.  August is the name of the month and 23^rd is the day in the month.  We use months to help us know what day of the year it is.  It takes the Earth one year,  that is 365 days, to go around the sun.  There 365 days and 365 nights.  Your birthday is the 235^th day of the year.  Many, many years ago, lots of people decided to make it easier to remember what day of the year it was by making up something called months.  So instead of saying, this is the 235^th day of the year, they say, this is August 23. It is just easier, and people liked it better.  Months have about 30 days, it is so much easier to count to 30 than 365.  (We read our kids storybooks and let them watch TV shows that have much more complicated storylines than this!  Introducing concepts respectful to their lack of prior knowledge in a logical, story-like way creates a very rich palette for the goal of this week’s lessons; which is to understand months and dates.)

There are twelve months.  Why do you think we have twelve months?  (This just helps her think, and realize that she doesn’t know why)  Well, there’s no real reason that we have twelve months.  In fact, many, many, many years ago (reinforces the concept of “year”), our calendar only had 10 months, but then, we added two months because e of two very important people.  Those people were soooo important, that people added two months to the calendar using their name.  One man’s name was Julius, can you guess which month we named after Julius?  The other is Augustus, can you guess what month is named after Augustus? (The fact that there is a good chance she could guess August will help her self confidence and make her enjoy the lesson more) Wouldn’t that be amazing if a lot of people thought you were soooo cool that they decided to name a whole month after you???  Maybe that month would be called Laurentember.  And Allie’s month could be Allietober.  And Mommy’s month could be Momurary!   (I am not expecting Lauren would fully and richly know this history, but I feel like it helps  draw more attention to the thinking about the names of the months.  However, true facts will help  set the course for later learning.)

Put sun on floor.  Tape the months to the floor around the sun.  

Have Lauren hold the Earth and walk around the sun, listening to these song.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5enDRrWyXaw , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEOhuuKtFYU , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrVjQSaTQc4   We revisited these songs many times in the next few days J

Talk about the months….do you know what month your birthday is?  August, let’s walk to August.  Ok, what month is Allie’s birthday in?  May, let’s find May.  My birthday is in July, it’s right next to your month.  Daddy’s birthday is in December.

Now, I have introduced months to Lauren in a respectful , intellectual way.  This approach is exhilarating to her, she incorporates this information and applies these analytical thinking skills in all her thinking!!  She loves it!!

Wednesday

We listened to the youtube videos again.  We see how far we can go remembering the songs.  In passing, we pointed out that people commonly use pictures to describe the months, ie Santa for December, and why that is.   

I am incorporating reading into our lesson.  We are focusing on sightword method of reading right now.  I put the names of the months on the table and we organized the ones with the same letter together.  Then, I would name a month and ask Lauren to guess which written word was that month.  She can use the first letter to pick the right month often.  Repeating the vocabulary over and over is so important.  Don’t do it in a dry way;  songs, books, talking about it, art projects, field trips.  Just incorporating the new vocabulary in a big deal.

We are also incorporating math.  We have followed a path of Montessori in learning numbers…here is the link to the cards which we love:  http://www.montessoriprintshop.com/uploads/MF-9_Large_Number_Cards.pdf  Even though, she has put together numbers up to 9,999, we are still practicing before moving on.  I want to reinforce the vocabulary of numbers and it gave me the opportunity to reinforce the concepts of 12 months, 30 or 31 days per month, 365 days a year, and family birthdays.

We have a magnetic calendar.  We used the magnets to put the calendar together.  This also worked on ordinal numbers(first, second, third).  I didn’t try to master that with her because it is dry.  It was merely an introduction, but she did seem to pick up on it.  We put events on the calendar.  I said, “What if someone asked you if you could go bowling on August the 20^th.  Find 20 on the calendar”  And so on.  We also discussed that the year is 2012, because there have been 2012 years since Jesus was born. 

Thursday

We reviewed the numbers and the sight reading words.  We listened and tried to sing the months of the year song.  Then, we had a huge art project.  I printed off the months and we decorated them based on something about the month.  We put a sticker on some important days. 

Friday

My plan was to go to a Hallmark store and notice how the cards related to special dates.  We were going to read the cards and notice the cultural ways that people make each other happy by sending greetings on certain dates.  BUT, that morning, I got a call from a WORLD FAMOUS JAZZ STRING BASSIST that is a friend from my home town.  He was touring…the freaking planet, going to four different countries on three continents this MONTH, and we got to spend the day with him!!!!  I think we’re going to do some more review of the months this coming week.