Ramblings of a Mommy: Calendar Update

I've written about Calendar time twice already.

...and for good reason.

Calendar time is the most recurring procedure we do in our house for learning.

The calendar is amazing because you can use it in so many ways (some that I've already posted).

I thought it was time for an update on how I engage a 3 and a 4 1/2 year old with the calendar together.

We always start by moving the "today" marker to the next day.

Adelyn sometimes tells us the number "8" (she knows a few numbers, but not all of them).

Charlotte is old enough that I have been having her read/say the entire date

"today is Thursday, August the 8th".

Adelyn is only starting to recognize numbers, but counts well.

So, she finds the correct elephant, with the number 8 (with her toes :)

Then, she starts to make a chain, recounting the total each time she adds a link to see if we have reached the number for that day. Each time I ask if she needs more...

The chain then hooks onto the elephant.

Afterward, we count out 8 pennies and see if there is any trading we can do. I ask the same silly questions most days. (see my coin post for more details)

"Can we trade for this one? (I always show the quarter first, then dime, then nickel)

Why (or why not)? What is this coin called?"

After she trades 5 pennies for 1 nickel, we practice counting the money together, starting with the largest coin "5 (using the nickel) - 6, 7, 8(using the pennies).

Charlotte knows her coins well and which we can trade, but Adelyn is watching and listening the whole time, so this repetition is great.

Just this month we've started doing dollar bills as well.

Usually Charlotte does the counting, but today Charlotte told her sister that she would count them to her, then she could count them back. It was perfect (kids always have better idea than us) and they both had a chance to touch the money and count to 8.

Charlotte thinking about whether she can trade

Then, I ask about trading a 20 dollar bill, then a 10, then a 5.

Again, we count the total number of dollars starting with the 5, 6, 7, 8.

While Adelyn was doing the elephant, Charlotte counted out the 8 straws and switched the number to 8 for today (quietly, without being asked - what a gal ;)

Today, we just counted how many days until Storytime. It's summer so we don't have as many weekly activities as we do (say in September) so the calendar looks a little bare.

After a busy summer, Momma is okay with that!

The last activity is to go outside and see what today's weather looks like.

I've been sticking to these choices - sunny, cloudy or rainy

Although Charlotte has already started staying "sort of cloudy or really cloudy".

I haven't added a graphic to our calendar yet for weather, but it's in the works :)

One additional thing we've been doing is using the calendar and star stickers to mark which days Charlotte completes a reading lesson, as motivation chart.

Before they could eat, they had to count!

We ended today's calendar time with breakfast and with their waffles the girls got 8 blueberries!

Later, at lunch the girls got 8 raspberries with their pb&j rollups.

Charlotte started telling me different ways to make 8 with the raspberries with her hands. She started with 5 and 3, then she found 4 and 4. After some prompting, she put a raspberry in her palm to make 6 and 2 and finally 7 and 1. This is a perfect precursor to addition :)

My girls are no dummies so they asked for 8 gummy sharks after their roll-up and fruit...um, no! I told them they could 3 sharks, but since they still seemed hungry they could have 8 goldfish. Chatlotte remembered from a book that sharks eat fish, so I couldn't resist a story-problem. If there are 3 sharks and 8 fishes, how many fish does each shark get to eat?