Did you know that we work daily on functional calendar skills here at school? It is an easy skill to work on but a hard one for kids to master because it is so abstract? So working at it at home can also help. It is important kids learn this because it helps them to align them selves with the world and with routines. Imagine if you woke up tomorrow, not knowing what day it was, what season, what holiday was next, if it was a work day or not? This is how many kids feel before they develop these skills.
Here are some things you can do?
- Have family routines that coincide with times and days. For instance, most Friday's are movie night at our house. So talk about that today is Wednesday, only two days to movie night. Some people have pizza night, eat out night, or bowling night. Let us know at school know what your routines are and we can help to develop that too. Kids generalize better with they talk about things in all settings.
- Talk to your kids about the days. "Today is Monday. Today, you have school because it is Monday." "Tomorrow is Tuesday, we go soccer and school on Tuesdays"
- Give kids a calendar for their room and have them mark off the days as part of their bedtime routine.
- Use a paper calendar as a game board. Roll a di and land on the dates. Have the kid say the date outloud. Try to make it through a whole year. "I landed on October 30th, it is almost Halloween." The winner makes it to Dec. 31.
- Teach kids their birthday. This is a common question at school with friends as birthdays are huge celebrations when you are 6. Talk about how far away their birthday is in months, weeks and days.
- Use your student's communication device to talk about what day it is, program events on the device so he or she can talk about the activities that happen. Show them how to say "Today, I ___"
