Last week, I suggested talking with your child about the days of the week and the months of the year with a calendar. Did you try it? Are you still not sure if you want to have the calendar time daily or not?
I will give you one more reason today why you want to have the calendar time with your child and make it a daily routine.
Your toddler or preschooler may already have some letters that they know, like the letters in their name. “A is for Angela! M is for mommy!” It’s good to start with those first few if you want to introduce letters and really start talking about the alphabet. And in the calendar time, we can find a perfect opportunity to do that.
“What’s the first letter of your name?”
“Which month has the same first letter as you?”
“Which day has the same first letter as you?”
This is a perfect beginner activity!
If you are doing the calendar, you must have a printout or a poster that shows the months of the year like this. You can use this when you sing the months of the year song, pointing each month as you sing. Although your child can’t read the words, pointing helps them to understand that different words represent different things. Also, they will be just seeing lots of letters! 🙃 Exposure!
You can use your finger to point the name of the month. But if something eye-catching points the name of the month, will it look more interesting and fun to your child? Yes, of course 😀
Make your own letter pointer
Materials
- Popsicle sticks
- Markers
- jewels/buttons/craft gems
- Liquid glue
Instructions
- Let your child decorate a popsicle stick with markers.
“Color, draw, write or make a pattern. Whatever you want.”
- Glue a jewel/button/gem at the end of the popsicle stick.
As your child is exposed to more letters through the calendar time and is being able to recognize more letters, you can start trying the letter searching activity.
You ask,
“what’s the first letter of your name?”
“Do you see the letter A in the months of the year poster?”
Then your child can find letter A.
To make this letter searching activity more fun, children can make their own letter searcher.
Make your own letter searcher
Materials
- Pipe cleaners
- Beads
Instructions
- Bend a pipe cleaner in half.
- Make a loop in the centre and finish by twisting it.
- Thread some beads on the pipe cleaner.
A little different version.
This long one is not very stiff so it’s not easy to capture a letter 😂 but it’s funny since it’s so wobbly.
You can use the letter pointer and letter searcher when you read a simple book, too.
Try making them to make the calendar time more fun and educational.
Did I convince you to have a daily calendar time with your child? I hope so 🙂
Happy learning and quality time!
Missangela👩🏻🦰🎀