How many days are there in August?

31
How about November?
30
March?
31

I know because my second grade teacher taught me a trick, a trick that I still use all these years later.
Ball your hands into fists.
Now look at them. Do you see how your knuckles make bumps and valleys?
If you assign each bump and valley a month of the year, in order, the bump-months will be the ones with 31 days, while the valleys will be the ones that only have 30 (except for February, which has 28-ish days).
Confused yet?
Maybe a visual will help.
I’ve asked Newt to be my hand model:
How many days in August?
I’ve always been amazed that this works so well.
And it’s not just that every other month has 31 days.
Oh, no.
If you look at July and August, they are both on bumps and they both have 31 days.

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12 Comments

  1. I always liked the little song of: 30 days has September, April, June and November all the rest have 31 except for February which has 28 and in the leap 29.

    Reply
    • awww cool so do i!

      Reply
      • hello! i’m in 2017

        Reply
  2. Me too. But I could never remember it.
    Though to be honest I never really tried that hard…

    Reply
    • Thanks this really helps! useful stuff

      Reply
  3. I just stumbled upon your site from another, and I LIVE for fun little tricks like this! My Toddlers were not impressed, but I can’t wait for my hubby to come home and show him:)

    Reply
  4. A kind of calendar with every date falling on the same day is the fixed calendar. It has 13 months with only 28 days. Every month has exactly 4 weeks. It’s also known as the world calendar. The world calendar has 364 days. Wouldn’t things be simple if we had 13 months of 28 days?

    Reply
    • At least I would know what day my period would start.

      Reply
  5. thank you for that simple joy. as a 37 year old, i am thrilled to now learn this. thank you so so so much.

    Reply
  6. Many thanks for this tip. I could never remember the rhyme, but the knuckles and valleys make perfect sense.

    Reply
  7. Cool

    Reply
  8. She forgot to do august and july on the little fingers knuckle

    Reply

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  1. 2012: A Heidi Retrospective | Frantically Simple - [...] posted in August 2011,  Pageviews in 2012 (as of 12/30): 9,542  Total pageviews: 45,310 How many days are there…

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