Calendar Time for Young Children

Most children under the first grade can understand most temporal concepts, the ones they do understand though are before, after, later. For me it not is only teaching them about before, after and later it is also about exposing them to new vocabulary too because in order to understand what you are teaching them they should be able to say the words and understand their meaning before they can get the concept of before, after and later and even be able to use it too. I looked at my little cousin who is going to be three soon knows some of his letters and I have some three year olds who just started with us who have no clue what letters are or even the alphabet song. So thinking about the calendar and working with it during gather time, and for me I dont like using that they are exposed to the calendar but they are they might not understand but they are learning about it and what it is. It can be used to be a first step in understanding some of those temporal concepts. In the article it talks about how preschoolers dont know time length, but like I said before its being exposed to new ideas, concepts, activities, etc. because they might not understand it right away or even after so many times, but has they grow more developmentally they will understand when they are ready to understand. The calendar is not only just about learning dates, but it can be used for numeracy. Vocabulary, sequencing, and patterning. This article gave ways that can be a better alternative to group time they are: picture schedules, classroom journal, documentation displays, linear representation, games, project work, and intellectual development and calendar time. I really like the idea of picture schedule and at my work we are always talking about putting one up, and it have the best intentions to get it done, but then it slips away from us, and so reading these articles have help give reminders that we wanted to do that or other things. I also liked the idea of project work, in which children actively engage in ongoing investigations of events and phenomena around them, is another way to give children opportunities to acquire many concepts and skills related to time. I also like the idea of games, especially if they are time, you can say alright this game you have 15 minutes and its done, they then will understand how long those 15 minutes are after they play the game enough. I still like having them learn the calendar even if they dont completely understand it because its a new concept that they wi ll eventually learn why not start learning about it before they go to school so they have a understanding on what it is.