How To Teach ‘The Calender’ To Your Child With Down Syndrome

The summer vacations are finally on and oh boy..Is mama happy? Yes, she is elated…because now, she doesn’t need to have her morning cuppa running around the house. She doesn’t need to bathe you kids like there is a plane to get you on. she also doesn’t need to get cranky when one of you, is taking an extra 5 minutes in the toilet..:) and she doesn’t have to run the marathon every morning to get you to the school van on time…
Now, she can enjoy the cuddling and tickling on the bed in the morning. She can run around the house after you, laughing ..and she can now take you out for a morning walk…Mama just loves vacations..who doesn’t?

Enough of third person..mama wants to write normal now 😀
First day of vacations and I already have got the list of things to do or introduce aarshia to. One being the ” Calender”. Have been contemplating for a long time to start up the process and finally the day has arrived..
Did some research ( love doing that..)
Here is how I plan on doing it. After some reading I found out that the best way is to start a week or two, before you introduce a calender. Talk to them about the mornings, noon and evenings. I am sure most of the children already know, when to say good morning and good nights. Then, try telling out the names of the days. for instance associate sunday with holiday. It will be good if kids in a way know or you can try a poem to make it fun..

some poems that I found easy and fun..

Every week has 7 days,
See how many you can say.
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
Saturday. What’s today?


(to the tune of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”)

Sunday, Monday, Tuesday too.
Wednesday, Thursday just for you.
Friday, Saturday that’s the end .
Now let’s say those days again!
Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday!

January, February, March, and April,
May, June, July, August, and September,
October, November, and December,
These are the months of the year…

You can also let your imaginations run wild and plan a week’s activities in advance, by teeling the kids about what you are going to do on monday, tuesday so on and so forth. This way, they’ll be able to relate to the days and will be more than ready to put the date sticker on the calender and wait for the next day.

Next would be, making the actual calender. ( the idea was shared to me by one of my dear friend “Relika westhoff” who lives in washington D.C. and has already done the same with her beautiful daughter “Reina”. She got a great success and Reina now is pretty comfortable with days, dates and months too. Thanks Relika!!

So you need to make sure that you have all the basic things like a cardboard or a thick chart, velcro sheet, some good adhesive, and markers in your child’s favourite color.

Divide the chart into 35 squares (7into 5), and then write the days name on top..make small squares with numbers from 1 to 31 and paste small velcro pieces at the back of the cards as well as on the chart.

This is how high, I have pasted it on my wall..