To this day, if I need to alphabetize something, I sing the alphabet to myself. I have two starting points: A and L, so to figure out whether W precedes V, I sing L-M-N-O-P Q-R-S T-U-V W! Sixth-grade teacher Megan Smith points out that the way we learn days of the week and months of the year often leads to a similar phenomenon in children: if you ask a kindergartener what day tomorrow is, they may well start reciting "Sunday, Monday, Tuesday..." until the get to the answer.

This is where the Creativity Kit comes in. Megan suggests creating puzzles that start at various points in the week (or year) so that children get used to the order of days and months without having to resort to recitations. You can see the activity she developed here. 

In Chinese, days and months are identified by number, so Chinese-language-learners simultaneously practice their numbers while learning how to say days and dates. Marshika Szabo's Creations can help you practice your Chinese and learn about how that language understands time all at once!

But the year isn't made up of just days of the week and months--we have declared that certain days are special. Birthdays and holidays are scattered throughout the year, and we all have trouble remembering whether Labor Day or Memorial Day is in September and whether Grandma's birthday is in March or in April. Megan's suggestion is to create activities that help the learner become familiar with both when a holiday falls and what it means. Soon you'll not only know that Memorial Day is in May, but also that it commemorates American soldiers who died fighting for their country.

The blog posts I've linked to here are:

Creativity Kit: Concepts of Time – Days and Months

Creativity Kit: Days and Dates in Chinese

Creativity Kit and Concepts of Time: Special Dates and Holidays