Learning Through the Days of the Year

By: Diane Flynn Keith

There are historic, important, and even fun and silly events to commemorate nearly every day of the year. You can use some of these dates to boost your young child's knowledge of the world in a fun and playful way. We have compiled information, books, websites, lessons, DVDs, and other resources to help you do just that in our Universal Preschool Learning Calendar.

Here is a sample of what you will find for the month of October...

Note: If your preschool-age child has older siblings at home, you may be interested in our comprehensive DVD Schooling Calendar with learning suggestions for every day of the year.

Celebrate Ripe Pumpkin Day! October 7th!

October Learning Calendar

2 — Name Your Car Day!
Name Your Car Day is today. If your car doesn't have a name, let the children help you name the car. Before you do, you might want to: Look at the car. Talk about all of it's parts. What color is your car? Is it small or large? Fast or slow? Old or new? Wash the car. By taking care of the car and talking about its attributes, the children might be able to think of a good name. Once you name the car, go for a ride. Try some of these Carschooling activities designed for traveling with toddlers and preschoolers.
6 — Mad Hatter Day!
It's a day to celebrate looking and acting silly.

Colorado computer techies invented this day in 1986 to relieve boredom at work. The Mad Hatter is a silly, fictional character in the children's classic book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. In an illustration in the book, The Mad Hatter wears a top hat with a slip of paper containing the notation, "In this style 10/6." It's believed to be an order and price tag for the hat in the amount of ten shillings, sixpence. It was used as a reference to create this holiday on 10/6 or October 6th. While the book is geared for ages 9-12, the Disney DVD, Alice In Wonderland, based on the book, is suitable for younger children. (Look for Disney's animated classic at your local library!) Make some silly hats and wear them today.
12 — Farmer's Day!
October signals the end of harvest time and offers the perfect opportunity to celebrate all that farmers do for us. Many children today have no idea where their food comes from, and few have visited farms. Now is the perfect time to explore these farm-themed activities that will boost their knowledge of the world:

Read books about farms!
- Beloved children's author, Margaret Wise Brown wrote The Big Red Barn that introduces young children to the animals, sights, and sound in a barnyard on a farm.
- The Year At Maple Hill Farm by Alice Provensen is a story that explains to children what happens on a farm during each season of the year.
- Read a FREE Talking E-Book called The Farm Animals by Rolando Merino. Not only is the story read aloud online, but you can hear the sound each animal makes just by clicking on its picture. Fun!
Sing about farms!
- Read the lyrics and listen to the music of Farmer In The Dell and Old MacDonald.
Visit a farm!
- Visit a pick-your-own pumpkin farm. Many have corn mazes and hay rides at this time of year - and petting zoos too!
- Take a Virtual Tour of Kids Farm -- Learn about animals and people that live and work on a ranch in Colorado. Hear what sounds farm animals make, discover what grows on a farm, and see pictures of real farm equipment. There are also free farm-themed coloring pages that you can print out and enjoy.
21 — Count Your Buttons Day!
Buttons are everywhere. Go on a button search today. See how many you can find. Talk about all of the different shapes, colors, and sizes. Not only are buttons fun to count - they are fun to collect. Plus, buttons can be used to play lots of games. Check out some of the button games in this book that has 101 button games or play...

Button, Button Who's Got the Button?
- Designate one player to be the "Guesser" and one to be the "Giver." The rest of the players sit in a circle around the Guesser.
- Each player puts their hands together, as if in prayer. The "Giver" holds a button between his/her two hands and walks around the circle pretending to drop it into everyone's hands - but really only drops it into one person's hands.
- When finished, the Giver says, "Button, Button Who's Got the Button?" The Guesser gets 3 guesses to see who has the button. If the "Guesser" guesses correctly then he/she gets to be the "Giver" and chooses the "Guesser" for the next round. If the "Guesser" does not guess correctly the "Giver" chooses another "Guesser" for the next round, and the person who had the button becomes the "Giver."

Celebrate Halloween! October 31th - Do you have your costume yet?

31 — Halloween!
Check out our exclusive "Preschool Halloween Curriculum" with all kinds of playful ideas and activities to help your child learn while celebrating. Includes reading suggestions, pumpkin activities, how to make a dancing bat and kooky clay, trick-or-treat ideas, recipes for ghost toast and apple cider, resources for fingerplays, songs, and much more!

That's just a taste of the entertaining and engaging resources that will help you boost your young child's knowledge of the world in this outstanding activity book and time-saver! Order your copy today - here's how:

New! Universal Preschool's Learning Calendar!

Fun, Easy Activities & Time-Saving Resources - Get a full 12-months of learning just for the little ones!

"If you are the parent of a preschooler - you need this calendar! It will save you hours of research and provide dozens of innovative activities, lessons, and teaching ideas that are just right for children ages 2-5!"

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