When and how did you start teaching about the calendar and time?

[tny915]

Since we're starting preschool soon, I'm looking for a good way to teach DD time. I'd also like to be able to show her that on weekends, DH and I are home and on weekdays, she goes to school or stays with my parents. When and how did you introduce time and the days of the week?

[Lynnie]

My kids are both in daycare, and have been since they were little, so it just sort of came up. Plus, the church that houses the daycare put an ice cream machine in (grrrrrr) and to stop the pleas for ice cream every day, I made friday ice cream day. Both the two and the four year olds know that friday is ice cream day, and understand that not every day is friday, iykwim, but only the four year old gets the whole day, week, month concept. He is interested in numbers and counting and that kind of thing, so we put a calendar in his room, and mark dates together, and have a digital clock there too. He's known for over a year that his bedtime is 8:09.

So having a special thing on one day helps reinforce the whole different day of the week thing, and letting them help mark calendars, and putting different symbols on days with school, or weekends, or holidays makes it fun to learn that kind of thing too. Then, it'll just come.

[deenass]

My 3 year old is starting to ask about "what day is it", mostly in the context of daddy's "stay home days (the weekends) vs his "go to work days". We talk about it in those terms (he knows daddy has two stay home days).

We only started talking about it b/c he was asking.

[bcky2]

we also started the days because of asking what days daddy will be home. as for time my ds has been asking me non stop "what time is it" so we look at the clock and i tell him what time it is and where the fingers point. i do know at his preschool that he starts in 2 weeks they teach the calander so im sure that he will have it down pat really soon.

[JElaineB]

Probably the last 6 months or so DS has been really interested in days of the week, seasons and time of day. He is always wanting to know what day it is and has the days of the week memorized. He goes to daycare Mon-Tue-Thur-Fri and grandma's on Wed (and stays home on Sat-Sun) so what day it is matters to him. Plus Tuesday is the buffet dinner at Pizza Hut so he reminds us when it is Tuesday. :)
He also wants to know what season it is, and what comes next. He can't wait for winter (Christmas) this year. He can read a digital clock but I don't really think he has any great concept of what a particular time of day means at this point yet. We haven't had any particular plan to teach him these things - they just come up and we answer his questions as he asks them.

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[CiderLogan]

My almost-3-yo is obsessed with the calendar/time. We are constantly discussing what day it is, what time of day, what her friends are doing at various times of day, whose birthday is next (we go through the entire year talking about our family and extended family), what happens next, etc. Her favorite book these days is called "Time" (it was on the clearance section at our local Borders if you want to try to find it), and it lists the days and seasons and months (DD learned these from this book). For her birthday this weekend, we are giving her a Melissa and Doug calendar (it's magnetic so you can put each month's activities on it). I don't know yet if she'll like it, but that might be one way to introduce the concepts to your DD. Also, this Time book I mentioned has a clock in the back - we turn it to different times and DD loves to ask what we do at each time. So a clock with rotating hands might be a fun toy for your DD.

Oh, and I guess we started talking about these things around age 2.

Jenny
Julia, 8/03
Clara, 5/06