Calendar Study suggestions?

To learn how to read a calendar, etc, we just keep one – we didn’t read any books or anything about it. I printed off a simple calendar template and each day at the start of our school time, we fill in the date and then recite the whole date ie “Today is Tuesday, April 10, 2012”. We might also talk briefly about what day it was yesterday, and what day it will be be tomorrow. We used a couple silly little songs to learn all the months and days. When we did this the first time, my dd was in preschool and I just had her trace over the numbers that I wrote. When she was in K I had her start writing the numbers for herself (this was a really simple, non-threatening way to learn how to write numbers BTW – she just wrote 1 single number each day for an entire year, before we started a written math curriculum.) You can also tie other mathematical topics too – we build the number of the date out of base 10 blocks, and colored the squares on the calendar to make a pattern, etc. There are some good calendar printables here that may help you. http://www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/calendar-printables Now that she is in first we are doing our calendar time in French. =)

For seasonal nature study ideas, I suggest checking out the ebooks on the Handbook of Nature Study blog – she releases a new one for each season with tons of links, notebooking pages, etc. http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.fr/ Heaps of ideas. We are having fun with these this year, and I’m not a natural “nature study” person.

HTH some

Jen

I concur with Jen. However, there are some poems and books to learn the roots of the names. There’s a book by Betsy Maestro: http://www.amazon.com/The-Story-Clocks-Calendars-Millennium/dp/0688145485/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_8

With my young kids, the months determine which books I bring out according to season. Fall is topics like Johnny Appleseed, apples, autumn books, pilgrims, etc. Winter is hibernation books, Christmas stories, snow books, etc. Spring months are topics like plants, flowers, butterflies, etc. Summer is a little less but I am sure you get the idea. 🙂

I like to buy each child their own little calendar to mark off the days. They recite the date and we talk about how to spell the month and special observances or holidays throughout the month. It’s very easy and fun!

By the way, I store the aforementioned seasonal books in a special box and change out the books each month. The current books being used are kept in a convenient basket on the kitchen table where the kids can browse during meals.

HTH!