Teaching kids the days of the week doesn’t need to be a huge event.
Parents don’t need printables, charts, diagrams, or huge posters.
Sure, a calendar hanging on the wall helps. But parents can help their children learn the days of the week in less than a minute each day. Really.
It’s about creating a daily rhythm, especially at home and especially when kids are young. And that’s it.
Here’s the skinny. . .
- Teach Kids the Days of the Week (in a Super-Easy Way!): Starting the day by talking about what day it is is something we’ve been doing for years and years.
And though it might not seem like rocket science, I firmly believe it has helped Maddy, Owen, and Cora understand the concept of weeks vs weekends and learn the days of the week.
Plus, it’s given us a schedule and a routine–and we all know that children, especially little guys, thrive on routine. Let’s face it–we all do.
Take a look at our latest vlog to really get the down-low on what we do over here to help our kids learn those seven important guys whom they’ll know from here on out–Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, (and our faves!) Saturday and Sunday.
Really simple, right?
Owen’s vitamin case. . .
. . . complete with his ‘C’ for wintertime and his daily.
Start now–head over to a nearby pharmacy, shell out a buck or two for a plastic pill case, and start tomorrow.
Here’s to a happy, more organized and totally amazing 2013.
It doesn’t have to be difficult–parenting is hard enough! But every parent is capable of sneaking in a little bit of meaningful learning into their children’s every day. We can do it!
Of course we CAN do it! Especially with such amazing ideas 🙂
I went a bit further and taught the little ones (5 and 7 year olds) days of the week in my mother tongue’s as well. I don’t want to push them too hard though, being biligual is hard enough as it is, they don’t need a crazy auntie who will talk to them only in Polish! 🙂
OMG Alexandra!! YOU are a rockstar!! THANK you for mentioning that!! So important–and such a cool idea. Thanks for sharing, my friend!
Oh, I am a rockstar! My fav compliment of ALL time! :)) Thanks so much.
On a side note – teaching a kid another language may be difficult for both parents and kids. The important thing is to be calm – they may not learn as much as we would want them to but at least they will hear the pronunciation. And however trivial it may seem it’s actually essential. With Russian for example – there are studies which show that if we do not listen to the sounds in the first 2 years of our lives we are not able to pronounce them as the native speakers do. A little bummer for all the adults trying to improve their language skills but well, as long as we know it and use “on” our kids! :))
I think this is theory a good idea but very dangerous when using a weekly pill container. I am concerned that a small child will not be able to discriminate their vitamins for maybe a grandparent’s medicine, especially if using Cheerios or treats. Maybe use this time to teach medication safety also.
Holly, good point! Luckily for us, we don’t live with or spend time with grandparents who keep their pill containers at close range so that kids can grab or find them, so it’s not an issue for us. But for another family, perhaps you’re right.
And I’m all about teaching–and learning–in everyday moments, so perfect time!
Thanks for mentioning!
I completely forgot about this issue. You have a point there – although any medicine should be kept away from the kids it can sometimes happen that it falls into their hands.
Hi, this is a really good idea the only problem I can see arrising is the use of vitamins or anything that looks like a tablet. My husband has one of these holders which he uses for his heart medication etc and lots of children probably have parents on medications who use such holders. Children might think that all holders like these (even though their name would not be on it) contain vitamins/lollies and that they can eat them. I know medication holders should be out of reach but accidents do happen. Maybe something else could be put into each section that is not edible that children might look forward to opening daily, not sure what though.
sorry didnt read all the comments above I guess everyone thought of the same thing as I did
For a non-edible thing that children could look forward to, how about a joke? You can print out a list of simple knock-knock jokes or child-friendly one-line puns, cut them into little slips, roll the slips and put one in each compartment.
We used to have a homemade chart on the wall that we updated every morning. It had the day of the week, the day of the month, the month, the season, the year and the weather. That chart was damaged when we moved and I’ve been meaning to make a new one up because it was just the handiest little thing. Not even 5 minutes a day and our son (18 months-2 years at the time) really grasped the concept of weather after we started doing this with him. He asked alot of fun questions like where wind came from and why it rained, which spurred some great preschool science experiments and trips to the library.
Even though the date was included in the chart, he never seemed to grasp the concept. I really love this idea and I think it could help us! (Besides teaching him the days of the week, it would also be useful for us to remember to give him his vitamin. Admittedly sometimes we forget to!)
Thank you!
SUCH a great story–thanks for sharing, Suzy!! I love that so much learning started from your homemade chart! Let me know if you try the vitamin case idea–I’d love to hear your feedback!