Trick To Remember Which Months Have 31 Days - Happy Hooligans

Use your knuckles to figure out how many days are in a month. This knuckle trick is so easy, even young children can learn it. It’s so much simpler than remembering that rhyme! 

I don’t know about you, but as a kid I could never remember the rhyme that helps you remember how many days there are in a month. I was good with the first line, but I couldn’t keep the rest of the rhyme straight.

How Many Days in a Month Rhyme:

Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November; All the rest have thirty-one, Excepting February alone, And that has twenty-eight days clear, and twenty-nine in each leap year.

It’s so much easier to just tap your knuckles!

In this post, I’ll show you how you can tap your knuckles and the dips in between them while reciting the months in order. Where you tap (either on the knuckle or in the dip) as you say the month’s name will indicate whether the month has 30 or 31 days.

I learned this trick more than 40 years ago, and I still use it to this day when I can’t remember how many days there are in a particular month.

Use the knuckle trick to remember which months have 30 or 31 days!

Ok, so your kids probably know how many days are in a year (365), and how many months are in a year (12). Now it’s time to teach them how to remember how many days are in a month, but that depends on which month you’re talking about of course.

Easy way to remember how many days are in a month.

The trick I’m about to show you is such an easy way to remember which months have 30 days and which months have 31!

You’re going to love this! Your kids are going to love this! Your friends are going to love this.

Ready?

Make a fist:

Your fist can either face toward you or away from you. For the sake of the photos, we have it facing us, because between you and me, the photo of my son’s fist facing away from the camera made it look like he had a mutant toad hand. HA!

Tap your knuckles and the wells in between:

All you do is tap each of your knuckles, and the wells in between, while reciting the months of the year.

You’ll start with the first knuckle and work your way to the knuckle on your baby finger.

When you get to the last knuckle, go back to the first knuckle, and continue reciting.

Your knuckles, which are higher up than the wells in between, represent  the months with 31 days. Get it? Higher up = higher number of days.

The wells in between your knuckles represent the months with 30 days (lower down = lower number of days).

All you really have to remember is that February only has 28 days (or 29 in a leap year).

That’s a lot easier to remember than that silly old rhyme, don’t you think? 🙂

More simple tips and tricks to simplify your life:

30 Time-Saving Tricks and Tips for the Home

Follow the Hooligans on Facebook

SUBSCRIBE

for FREE crafts,

activities & recipes!

Your kids will never be bored again! Jackie Currie

Jackie is a mom, wife, home daycare provider, and the creative spirit behind Happy Hooligans. She specializes in kids’ crafts and activities, easy recipes, and parenting. She began blogging in 2011, and today, Happy Hooligans inspires more than 2 million parents, caregivers and Early Years Professionals all over the globe.