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How to Introduce the Calendar to Your Preschooler

If you've ever discussed an upcoming trip with a preschooler, you know their concept of time and calendars are fluid at best. While 4-year-old children have the cognitive capability to understand past, present and future, they cannot understand phrases like, "in three days from now." According to the National Center for the Education of Young Children, you can teach the names of months and days of the week to preschool age children, but attaching meaning to such words requires visual creativity.

Things You'll Need

  • Moon stickers
  • Activity stickers
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Instructions

    • 1

      Record upcoming and past activities on the calendar days using stickers. For example, if you go to the park on Monday, June 8, sit down with your preschooler and place stickers inside the Monday box showing the day's activities in sequential order. Visually documenting the events that happen each day helps your preschooler conceptually organize event sequences by days.

    • 2

      Divide days of the calendar by a definitive event that happens once a day to encourage your preschooler's understanding of passing time. For example, place moon or sunset sticker on the lines between calendar days and reference them when explaining an upcoming event. For example, "In three more moons (or sunsets), we will go visit Grandma." You can also reference events that your child experiences once daily, such as, "We will go visit Grandma after three more baths."

    • 3

      Place weather stickers on each calendar day to encourage your preschooler's understanding of seasons. Use snowflake, raindrop or sun ray stickers on each day to connect the calendar months and days with different climates. Ask your child what the weather was like at the end of the day and let him place the sticker of the snowflake or blazing sun. Let him draw a picture of what he wore to school that day and how the air felt and paste it next to the calendar.

    • 4

      Discuss the images on the calender with your preschooler and ask him questions to encourage his understanding. Putting a calender with stickers near his bed and chronicling the events yourself won't give him the same understanding of a calendar as you4 guiding him through the changes and markers of time.

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