How to learn the days of the week with a child at home?

There are two main issues that parents are interested in regarding the child's learning the names of the days of the week.

The first is how easy it is to learn the days of the week with a child, and this question is relevant for young children who do not yet know the units of the names of time intervals even in their native language. The second is how to teach the child the same names in English, and this question is fundamentally different from the first. The difference between the two tasks is the following: in one case, the child takes on a fundamentally new skill, while in the other he develops an additional strategy for achieving an already known goal.

In this article, we offer some advice on both presented questions.

Different approaches to learning

When we come into the world, we do not know about the existence of such concepts as "minute" or "month", we do not have any idea of the cyclical nature of the seasons and the repeatability of the names of the days of the week. Of course, one day there comes a time when it becomes necessary to understand this. The realization of how time "moves" does not come instantly, and one must be prepared for the fact that the result will not be achieved immediately.

Studying the names of the days of the week in English is a much simpler task, because the child already understands the name of what phenomenon he needs to remember.

Consider how to help your child learn the days of the week in both cases.

The first acquaintance with the concept

Days in the child's mind are separated from each other by the onset of darkness. In addition, he can not help noticing that at one time parents are next to him from morning till night, while in others they are absent for a long time, and this happens quite regularly. On the basis of these patterns it is easy to explain to the child what the difference between weekends and weekdays is.

How to learn the days of the week with a child, if he has never encountered these concepts? For example, explain how Monday differs from Tuesday. These words are too abstract to be represented in the form of a picture, but there are also proven ways to achieve the goal.

Many children go to sections and mugs: for one day they have drawing, on the other - dancing, music, a school of early development and so on. Drawing the child's attention to the regularity of attending these classes, one can, in a fairly short time, teach him to distinguish between weekdays and others.

Using Color

It is known that the use of colored pens, pencils and markers accelerates the process of assimilation of the material, regardless of the subject being studied. No wonder in school children are taught different colors to highlight headlines, emphasize words, allocate morphemes. The application of this advice will help both to learn the days of the week with the child, and to master the area of knowledge of interest by yourself.

Indeed, remember that the objects are different, easier by one or at once several distinctive features? Is it easier to distinguish a circle from an oval or a shaded blue circle from a green and unpainted oval? In the first case, a person is forced to be guided solely by a geometric feature, and in the second - by her, and by the color and way of painting - of course, the second option is simpler for the brain.

Similarly, you can remember the days of the week: Monday will be, for example, red, Tuesday - yellow, medium - green.

The game approach

Every child loves to play. And on the contrary, children do not like when some action becomes a duty. In this case, they begin to be capricious, refuse to perform the required, and at times even cry.

The value of the game, among other things, is that it has spontaneity. Talking about how to quickly learn the days of the week with a child, you can not help turning to such a powerful tool. The effectiveness of using the game model in teaching is truly enormous: the parent knows that he is carrying out an educational activity, and the child, in turn, is sure that he is just having fun. However, no matter how he positioned the event, the learning process of the brain will still be carried out, and that is our goal.

You can play by building a train from cards with the names of the days of the week, coming up with rhymes, drawing pictures and so on. The main thing is for the child to be interested, and then he will be willing to learn new words when he learns the names of the days of the week.

Visual associations

In most cultures, time is presented as a straight line, in which minutes, hours, days, months, and years follow one another . With an image on paper, it usually turns out to be oriented from left to right. Thus, the child can remember the names of the days of the week, arranging them in order - for this purpose you can use colored cards with the corresponding Russian or English words written on them.

You can use another version of the visual presentation - in the form of a school diary. Many adults say that they both imagine the days of the week in space at thirty and forty, as in the pages of the diary: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - on the left turn, Thursday, Friday and Saturday - on the right. Sunday in this case is kept in the mind and is perceived separately.

Visualizing the week as an open school diary page, you can both learn the days of the week with the child, and develop your own memory by making mental notes on these imaginary pages instead of accessing a notepad or reminder function in your mobile phone.

Considering that each child will go to school one day, this variant of the presentation can be useful when studying the days of the week.

Poems and counts

There is a whole lot of verses in which the names of the days of the week are played out. As you know, rhymes are remembered much better than the text in prose. As a result, the child learns all the necessary words without any difficulties, and the matter remains for understanding the content.

Simultaneous realization of motor activity and reading of verses aloud will be another useful pastime. The benefit of combining these actions goes far beyond the question of how to learn the days of the week with the child, as it promotes the development of various connections in the brain in the long run. It is easy to notice that simultaneous combined movements in parallel with speech activity are given even to an adult person not from the first time. Such regular exercises bring significant benefits to children.

Find Russian or English rhymes, in which the names of the days of the week appear, are simple. Read them to the child aloud - if one of the proposed options he likes, then most likely he himself will want to learn it. In the future, you can use this method, for example, when studying the names of months or animals in English or countries and cities - in Russian.

Days of the week in English

Learning a foreign language is always associated with some difficulties: it is required to learn a large number of words, the conditions for their use, grammatical rules. Children up to 10-11 years learn the language easier than adults, and remember everything studied for many years.

However, logical thinking is less developed in them, and the initial stage, when lexical units must "grow" by associations, can cause disappointment, even to the unwillingness to continue learning.

In this regard, the names of the days of the week are almost ideal for the initial period of learning the language: they are easily remembered, cyclically repeated, and often on certain days of the week children go to sections and circles, which will also help the early development of new lexical units. Here are some tips to explain to a child how to learn the days of the week in English.

Repetitive fragments and etymology of words

Any adult understands that in the name of the days of the week in English, you can select a repeating fragment, namely: the word day, meaning "day." Thus, explaining how a child learn the days of the week and month, you can simultaneously teach him a few new words.

Each day of the week was historically named after a certain deity. Sunday is the "day of the sun", and the child can easily remember two new words: sun - the sun, day - day. Monday is the "day of the moon". The word moon ("moon") has two letters "o" in the composition, but in the word monday it is still recognizable.

The remaining days of the week are named after local deities, whose names are probably unknown to the child. However, for general educational purposes, you can tell him about northern mythology, for example about the Scandinavian rain god and Thunder Thunder, in whose name it got its name Thursday - thursday.

Finally

If the child does not get to quickly learn the names of the days of the week, do not worry and even more scold him. The human brain is adapted to the assimilation of information at the right time, which means that at one point the understanding will come.

In fact, there is not much difference in strategies, how to teach an adult and how to teach a child. Learning the days of the week for the first time is not an easy task, but growing up, we forget about it and expect from children quick results.

Using the tips given in this article, namely visual associations, color selection, game approach, emphasis on everyday patterns, you will not only help the child remember the days of the week, but also help him master effective learning strategies for later life.