Every time the month of March rolls around, I forget how many days there are in this month. And I keep forgetting until we get to October, because I always remember Halloween is on October 31. And I know December has 31 days because New Year's Eve.
Someone once taught me an easy way to remember how many days there are in each month. I'm going to illustrate with my turquoise bejeweled hand, since, well, I sell turquoise. But you can do it with your naked hand by following these steps:
- Make a fist and point it away from you. Not including your thumb and starting from the left going right, notice the knuckles are peaks, the spaces between each knuckle are valleys.
- Starting from the left, count the months: January (peak), February (valley), March (peak), April (valley), May (peak), June (valley), and July (peak).
- Start over on your fist with the remaining months: August (peak), September (valley), October (peak), November (valley), December (peak).
- Every peak is 31 days, and every valley is 30 days, except of course for February, which is 28 or 29, depending on whether it's a Leap Year.
Now you know how to keep track of which months have 31 days and which ones do not.