We were trying to teach Gamma the days of the week last night and it was beginning to piss us off. I mean, you’re nearly five, man, time to start learning shit. All three of us were frustrated. Gamma had this stupid grin she puts on when her feelings are being hurt and she is embarrassed. She is so sensitive. So we both calmed down for once, Alpha and I. And put aside worries of learning disabilities etc. Because – she is only four and three-quarters. And she has never had to explicitly learn anything before.
So we tried other approaches. I tried writing down the names of the days, to give her a visual clue (she knows letters). Alpha had already tried that. Didn’t help much. I tried using her hand. Luckily Gamma has seven fingers on each hand.
Eh, okay, she has only five fingers on each hand like most kids. So we did just the weekdays yesterday, we’ll do the weekend on her other hand another time. I went through the days, pinching her fingertips lightly and repeating the names of the days. Thursday was the ring finger, visual clue – Thursday has a ring (at least on my hand).
She had the days down by bedtime, yay. And still remembered at breakfast. And even suggested using the other hand for the weekend. Hopefully we’ll think of this kind of gimmick sooner next time.
I’m sure she was just nervous at being the focus of attention and some new expectations. When she gains a little self-confidence after a bit, look out…
That’s my feeling too. I mean, it was the first time she’d been expected to explicitly learn something in a structured way. She is a brilliant kid in a lot of ways. It’s just a matter of learning to learn in this new way, I think, and a matter for us as much of not screwing up and making her hate learning as it is actual teaching.
Excellent solution. Mnemonic devices, whether physical or verbal, have always helped me to recall new stuff. For example, off the top of my head I can tell you that taxonomic classification is done descending through: kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species. Now, if only I’d left room in my noggin’ for that other stuff, like where I live. Mommy?
You could have done Days of the Week underpants. That’s how I learned.
Gah. She has those! We’d just never been trying to teach her the days before, all together. Will do.
Hmm. wonder if I could get some PIN code underpants for me…
Hey. I have an idea how to make learning of the days easier. For one you could do a little ‘adult learing’ and discover where the origin of the weekdays and then wrap them up into child-speak and hopefully your kid might remember the story and be able to recall the days. Eg
Most Latin-based languages connect each day of the week with one of the seven “planets” of the ancient times: Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. French, for example uses:
English French “Planet”
Monday lundi Moon
Tuesday mardi Mars
Wednesday mercredi Mercury
Thursday jeudi Jupiter
Friday vendredi Venus
Saturday samedi Saturn
Sunday dimanche (Sun)
English has retained the original planets in the names for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. For the four other days, however, the names of Anglo-Saxon or Nordic gods have replaced the Roman gods that gave name to the planets. Thus, Tuesday is named after Tiw, Wednesday is named after Woden, Thursday is named after Thor, and Friday is named after Freya.
Now all you have to do is do some research on the nordic gods and wrap them up in a story.
Have fun!