question about my 8 yo dd

[minkin03]

would you be concerned if your 8 yo *just turned 8 yo* still is unable to put the months of the year in correct order?

[meemee]

only if she has not done something like this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEOhuuKtFYU

that's how dd learnt the months of the year (different song i think though).

if you asked me what months have 30 days, i still have to sing 30 days hath september to figure it out. 

i sing the abc song while searching through a dictionary or thesaurus (book). 

[4evermom]

I'm not sure my almost 10 yo knows the months of the year.  It's not like we go around chanting them.  It doesn't really come up in daily life much. 

[reezley]

Not sure that info would just be absorbed without a concerted effort to try to learn it. My 6yo has known them for a while, but he has always loved looking at calendars and we happen to have a months puzzle in the house too.

[MJB]

My 8.5 yr. old does not know. I just asked. I'm not sure they've tried to teach it in school yet. 

[NZJMama]

Not if she hasn't been exposed to it yet.

[pianojazzgirl]

My dd who just finished 1st grade doesn't know that yet.   She gets mixed up and forgets months and even thought that today (1st of July) was called "1st of Summer".  ;)

[Mizelenius]

I'd look at the bigger picture of what she does/does not know.  Hard to base anything on just one concept.

[Purple Sage]

My dd is turning 8 tomorrow, and she knows the months of the year.  I would be concerned if she didn't know them because it's something I know she has had many opportunities to learn in school and at home.

Originally Posted by 4evermom 

I'm not sure my almost 10 yo knows the months of the year.  It's not like we go around chanting them.  It doesn't really come up in daily life much. 

I think this is something that comes up in daily life quite frequently.    Whenever one of my kids asks when something is happening (like a birthday or a holiday or when grandma is coming to visit or, really, any number of events that are planned in advance), I pull down the calendar and show them.  That way they get a visual idea of how long it will be and learn the days and months at the same time. 

[meemee]

learning the months of the calendar is nothing but pure memorization. i find learning the order of the months and the alphabet as well as multiplication table where there is no explanation but u just gotta know - very hard without any kind of song of mnemonic device. if you are not given a device to learn i dont expect you to just know it. i cannot recite the alphabet without a parallel alphabet song going on in my head. 

i am learning another language. and i have to come up with a mnemonic device to learn the days of the week (the months are pretty close to english) to get them right. 

with memorisations just a visual aid is not enough. it is important to connect, but seeing a calendar will not make them learn teh correct order of the months. 

[Purple Sage]

Originally Posted by meemee 

learning the months of the calendar is nothing but pure memorization. i find learning the order of the months and the alphabet as well as multiplication table where there is no explanation but u just gotta know - very hard without any kind of song of mnemonic device. if you are not given a device to learn i dont expect you to just know it. i cannot recite the alphabet without a parallel alphabet song going on in my head. 

i am learning another language. and i have to come up with a mnemonic device to learn the days of the week (the months are pretty close to english) to get them right. 

with memorisations just a visual aid is not enough. it is important to connect, but seeing a calendar will not make them learn teh correct order of the months. 

Maybe just looking at a calendar and talking about the months, saying them in order while turning the pages, isn't enough for some people.  I was just saying that it worked for two of my children (the other two are younger and haven't learned the months yet), and it's something that comes up frequently in daily life.

[4evermom]

Originally Posted by Purple Sage 


it's something that comes up frequently in daily life.

Perhaps I should have specified it doesn't naturally come up frequently in my ds's daily life.  I could bring it up frequently by pulling down a calender and pointing at it.  But I don't. 
 

[Amylcd]

Yes, that would concern me.   If my 7+ year old did not know, I would question the type of education I (or their school) was providing.

[kathymuggle]

Nope.  

[Carrie Posey]

Months no.  Days of the week-yes!

[meemee]

Originally Posted by Purple Sage 

Maybe just looking at a calendar and talking about the months, saying them in order while turning the pages, isn't enough for some people.  I was just saying that it worked for two of my children (the other two are younger and haven't learned the months yet), and it's something that comes up frequently in daily life.

you know its interesting you say this about months. in our family dd learnt the days of the week that way. when is daddy picking me up, when do i see such and such person. even though bdays was a big deal, we never really looked at the calendar for that. 
 

[pianojazzgirl]

Originally Posted by meemee 

you know its interesting you say this about months. in our family dd learnt the days of the week that way. when is daddy picking me up, when do i see such and such person. even though bdays was a big deal, we never really looked at the calendar for that. 
 

Same here.

And my dd (6.5) knows that (for example) her b-day is in September, Christmas is in December, Halloween is in October, January is a cold winter month, etc, etc.  Those are things she's learned from daily life.  But she isn't able to recite the 12 months of the year in order.

[mnj77]

We sing the months to the tune of Ten Little Indians:

January, February, March and April,
May, June, July and August,
September, October, November, December,
Twelve months in a year.

I wouldn't be concerned, unless you've been working on it for weeks and she's still having trouble or she has trouble sequencing in other ways.

[mommy68]

I wouldn't worry but just keep working on it. Having them make their own calendars can be fun. You can print things out for free online. :) I did that with my daughter a few times over the last couple of years. She still has problems getting them right and she just turned 9 years old a couple months ago. They get it at some point.

[midnightwriter]

I'd only be concerned if she really wanted to know them in order, made an effort to memorise them, but couldn't.

I also think that a lot depends on personality. I've heard that some kids get a calendar as a gift, and work on it until they know the months in order. My DD has no drive to memorise them, it is simply not a priority for her. She knows where she can look them up when needed. She just turned 9, and she knows which months belong to which season, but definitely not in order. It is not my priority either to make sure she knows the order, until it becomes her priority.