Calendar Time

I decided several weeks ago that I needed to work more on Grace’s concept of time.  She’s ready to learn the days of the week and the months in the year.  She needs to gain a better understanding of “today”, “tomorrow”, and “yesterday.” 

I came across a great product when I was on Amazon looking for a birthday present for my sweet niece.  I ended up buying two…I shipped one to Hawaii as a gift and got one for Grace and me to use together.  Here’s the Melissa & Doug Deluxe Magnetic Calendar:

We love it!  I hung it in her bedroom (out of reach), and every morning the first thing we do is calendar time.  We review the month, date, day of the week, and planned activity.  We’ll talk about today, yesterday, and tomorrow by pointing them out on the calendar.  There are tons of magnetic pieces to put on the days, so we can fill up our calendar and have lots to talk about.  Our most-used pieces are:

• Play with friends
• Go to the park
• Go to the library
• Go on a picnic
• Ballet class (this won’t officially start until Sept., but we pretend now)
• Go to church (this one wasn’t part of the set…I made it custom from the extra blank ones that are included)
• Clean room

There are also pieces for “sunny”, “cloudy”, and “rainy”.  So, we look out the window, talk about the weather, and decide which piece we will use today.

This is a great product, and I’m so glad that she’s learning good kindergarten skills now.  Another side benefit is that it’s helping Grace to learn more patience.  If we know about a special activity in advance (like the Ranger baseball game we went to earlier this week), she has a visual representation and a better understanding of how long she will need to wait for that special day.