Finger Patterns and Days of the Week

Finger Patterns Monday to Sunday

Have you ever noticed your child confusing the days of the week? Do they constantly ask you "What day is it today?" or "When will it be the weekend?" My four year old always wants to know when his soccer game is so we started keeping track of the days of the week on his fingers. This is a great skill to get your child ready for pre-school, kindergarten or even first grade.  

There is so much learning inside the math. With this simple skill, he has learned the vocabulary for the days of the week, the sequence the days go in by keeping track on his fingers and how each day corresponds to a finger pattern. This is not the traditional calendar model, but allows your child to see the week on two hands.  Start the week on Monday.  Monday through Friday are on one hand and correspond to finger patterns 1 to 5.  This helps him understand that the school/work days are on one hand.   Saturday and Sunday are on his other hand and correspond to the weekend (finger patterns 6 and 7).

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

                                          

                                           Saturday

Sunday

(C) 2009 Kellie Merrill

How old are you?

FAWFP: Fun with birthdays

My nearly-two-year old has an advantage over his big brother. He has been watching him count, do finger patterns and talk about math since he was a newborn. He is very busy, as most are at this age. He loves to count along with his brother and play the tickle game (see previous entry) as much as picking up his favorite book. Just a few weeks ago I started telling him he had a birthday coming up and showing him on his fingers how old he was going to be. Not long after that he started making two and showing me two when I asked him "How old are you?" 

Please watch the clip below to see him hold down all his other fingers to show me two. Now that he has it down he loves flashing his two!