Ruby has started to ask about the timing of things we do regularly, such as going to the play center or her grandparents’ house. I tell her “we’ll go to the library in three days,” but I’m not sure how well she understands this. She’s obviously interested in the concept, though, so I came up with a way to communicate it more clearly.
I took a big whiteboard and drew seven columns on it. I put the name of each day at the top of each column, and added a marker for TODAY. Then, I printed out a ton of pictures and labels for things we do regularly, laminated them, and taped them onto the days in chronological order (breakfast first, bedtime last, etc.). Ruby can easily see which days Steve is at work, how many days until we go to Ultimate Frisbee, or who is coming over today after naptime.
She has been fascinated by the board so far, probably because all the pictures are of familiar things. I’m working on another set of pictures for things/people we don’t see every week but who I can add in when a visit is planned. Tomorrow, we’re going to see salmon at Carkeek Park, so I cut out a salmon picture and taped it on. I can even just draw something in with a dry erase marker if it’s a one-time event.
It’s a work in progress, and I’m not sure how long I’ll keep it up. But for now, I feel like Ruby is learning a lot about the concept of time.
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When Isaac and Aaron were around Ruby’s age, Amber and I started talking about stuff in the future in terms of “sleeps”. They seemed to understand that better than “days”…and if something is more than 10 sleeps away (or however big of a number they can conceptually understand), it’s too far in the future to worry about anyway 🙂