Read a calendar, step by step

A calendar is the first table most children learn to read, and it rewards reading in two directions at once.

The question
October SunMonTueWedThuFriSat12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 1. Date of the second Monday? 2. How many Thursdays? 3. Date of the third Wednesday? 4. What day is the 23rd? 5. How many Tuesdays? 6. Date of the second Friday?

Read the calendar

a column =one weekday
one row down =seven days later
the column, then down it
9
  1. A calendar is columns, not rows. Every date in one column falls on the SAME weekday, so dates a week apart sit directly above and below each other — the 3rd, the 10th, the 17th.
  2. Date of the second Monday? Two steps, and in this order: find the column with that weekday at its head, then count DOWN it — first, second, third — rather than hunting through the dates.
  3. That lands on the 9th.

How it works.

  1. 01

    A calendar is columns, not rows. Every date in one column falls on the SAME weekday, so dates a week apart sit directly above and below each other — the 3rd, the 10th, the 17th.

  2. 02

    Date of the second Monday? Two steps, and in this order: find the column with that weekday at its head, then count DOWN it — first, second, third — rather than hunting through the dates.

  3. 03

    That lands on the 9th.