Teaching kids about the months of the year with art

I find that now, at four years old, my daughter is more than ever eager to learn and comprehend. She’s a very creative little creature, full of energy and enthusiasm who claims to know it all too. But obviously she doesn’t. And I’ve been trying to teach her about the months of the year for a while now, with no success. But recently I got an idea that changed it all.

It all started with Tuta&Coco, an online service that transforms children’s drawings and paintings in to beautiful, high-quality art objects. As soon as I found out about them, I knew that I want to finally reuse all of my daughters creations from the past months! Because really, how do you display it all? I have no place left on my fridge!

So I’ve set my heart on a calendar. And that was the best choice I could have possibly made because I managed to get rid of the clutter of old drawings and paintings, and I got a great tool to teach Lili about the months of the year!

First we laid all of the months down. Because Tuta&Coco’s calendars are printed on separate, thick and beautiful paper sheets, kids can manipulate them and change months on their own (talking about a great design!)

I was really surprised to see that she remembered the meaning of each of her painting and drawing, and she even remembered which ones were made by her sister.

So I realized, that its not just a calendar for her: its a collection of memories and stories that she imagined. A collection that helped her finally gasp the notion of time.(Because kids learn best when their emotions and imagination is involved. And this is obviously what happened here.)

I helped her count the months and we separated them it to the seasons of the year. We talked about how seasons change, and how many months are in a season.

Then we where looking for important events, like Christmas and Easter and birthdays. She remembered a couple, and was surprised to see that her drawings where matching with some events, like valentines day or summer visits at the lake.

I really wanted Lili to understand that a calendar is used as a planning tool too, so we took a crayon and started marking days of the week, the play dates, the family visits, the days in her part-time daycare. And just like that she understood what a calendar is all about.

Finally she said that she knows why we need calendars: to know when things are going to happen! And I could tell that she was really proud of herself, naming the months and the seasons!

And I couldn’t be happier knowing that I managed to do two things that I was struggling with at a time: I organised my kids art, and I thought Lili about the months of the year using her own art!

For more ideas for reusing kids art, check Tuta&Coco Instagram account!

Disclosure: I got this product for a review, all opinions remain my own.