Months of the year for kids in Hindi and English

Months of the year for kids are easiest to learn through the things that happen in them: a birthday in March, mangoes in May, rain in July, Diwali in October or November. This page shows the 12 months as numbered cards from 1 to 12, each spoken in Hindi and English with clear audio, and gives you simple ways to turn a list of names into something your child actually understands.

What are the 12 months of the year?

There are 12 months in a year. In order, they are January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. In Hindi the महीनों के नाम sound almost the same, because they are borrowed from English: जनवरी, फ़रवरी, मार्च, अप्रैल, मई, जून, जुलाई, अगस्त, सितंबर, अक्टूबर, नवंबर, दिसंबर. That is good news for a bilingual child: learn one list and you nearly know the other. The word list above works as a months of the year chart with both names and the pronunciation.

How many days does each month have? This table is handy for older children and for making a birthday chart.

The knuckle trick: make two fists side by side. Say the months while touching knuckles and the dips between them. Every month on a knuckle has 31 days; every month in a dip has 30, except February. Children aged 5-6 love it.

Festival months move a little each year because many Indian festivals follow the lunar calendar, so check the year's calendar before you tell your child "Diwali is in November".

The Hindi calendar months: Chaitra, Vaishakh and more

Many families also use the traditional Hindu months, and schools sometimes ask for हिंदी महीनों के नाम चैत्र वैशाख. The Indian national calendar (the Saka calendar) also begins its year with Chaitra. The 12 months are चैत्र, वैशाख, ज्येष्ठ, आषाढ़, श्रावण (सावन), भाद्रपद (भादों), आश्विन (क्वार), कार्तिक, मार्गशीर्ष (अगहन), पौष (पूस), माघ, फाल्गुन (फागुन). Each one overlaps two English months: Chaitra falls around March and April, and Phalgun around February and March, the season of Holi. These names are also the महीनों के नाम संस्कृत में, since they come from Sanskrit star names. They are best kept for 5- and 6-year-olds who already know January to December.

A grammar note for class 1 Hindi: are महीनों के नाम स्त्रीलिंग या पुल्लिंग? They are treated as masculine (पुल्लिंग), so we say जनवरी आया in everyday speech.

How did the months get their names? (महीनों के नाम कैसे पड़े)

The English months come from Rome: January from the god Janus, March from Mars, July from Julius Caesar and August from Augustus. The Hindu months are named after the star (नक्षत्र) near the full moon in that month, so Chaitra comes from the star Chitra and Kartik from Krittika.

How to use the months game

• Listen: tap a card to hear, for example, "August, अगस्त". Tap from 1 to 12 to hear the months in order.
• Find it: Golu asks "Where is June?" and your child taps from 2 to 4 cards. There is never a "wrong". A mistaken tap hears the name of that month, then the right card glows, then Golu points.

The number on each card matters: it quietly teaches that June is the 6th month, which helps later with dates like 15/8. Each round ends with a marble in the Goli Jar; tap the jar to count them. Use the अ+A button for Hindi first, English first, or one language only. Settings, behind a grown-up check, include your child's age, fewer choices, calm sound, calm motion and captions.

What to expect at each age

Months are harder than days because a month is long; a child waits weeks to see the name change. That is why months usually settle around 5-6 years, after the days of the week. Do not worry if your 4-year-old calls every future event "next month".

How to teach months of the year to kids at home

1. Birthday chart: write the 12 months on a chart paper and add each family member's birthday, with a photo or drawing. Your child will find "Nani's month" again and again.
2. Calendar hunt: on the wall calendar, find this month, then flip to the next one. Ask "Which month has Diwali this year?"
3. Weather talk: link months to what your child feels: hot May, rainy July, cold December. This connects to seasons for kids.
4. Song: sing the months to a simple tune and clap once for each. Stand up on your own birthday month.
5. Before and after: "Which month comes before April?" builds order, just like before and after numbers.

Make a "month train" project: 12 paper coaches, one per month, each with a picture (a kite for January, a rain cloud for July). Peg them along a string in order. It doubles as a classroom decoration or a bulletin board idea.

Spelling, worksheets and printing

For months of the year spelling, tackle the tricky ones slowly: February (Feb-ru-ary, with an "r" people skip), August (starts with "Au"), and the "-ber" group: September, October, November and December. Old Latin fact: September, October, November and December once meant the 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th months, because the Roman year started in March.

To make a worksheet, print this page from your browser, fold back the Hindi column and ask your child to write the months in English, or the other way round. There is no separate PDF download, but the word list prints cleanly on one page.

Months of the year for nursery, kindergarten and classroom use

Teachers can put this page on a classroom screen for a five-minute calendar time. The class says each of the 12 months as you tap the cards, then children take turns in Find it. For toddlers and nursery children, keep it to the song and the current month; kindergarten and UKG children can manage the full order.

• Chart ideas: a months of the year chart for classroom decorations can be a circle split into 12 slices, coloured by season, with each child's birthday photo in their month. It also works as a bulletin board.
• Rhymes and games for kids: the old rhyme "Thirty days has September, April, June and November" helps older children. For a quick activity, hand out 12 month cards and ask children to stand in order.
• Hindi class: ask children to write the महीनों के नाम हिंदी और इंग्लिश में, starting जनवरी, फरवरी, then compare with the Hindu months.
• Printable worksheet for class 1: print this page, cover the English names and ask children to fill in the missing months. This makes a free months of the year printable from the word list, no PDF needed.

A months of the year project for kids can be as simple as a "my year" booklet: one page per month, with one drawing of something the child did in that month.

Calm, inclusive learning

Praise effort: "You got all the way to October!" If your child is frustrated, drop back to Listen mode, reduce choices in Settings, or finish with the birthday game, which children always enjoy. For children with speech delay, tapping the right month counts as knowing it. Autistic children often find a visual calendar with the current month highlighted reassuring. In a bilingual home, use the अ+A button to hear one language at a time. Keep sessions short and shared; children under 2 do better with songs and a grown-up than with a screen. Talk to your paediatrician if you have concerns about your child's language.

Carry on with counting 1 to 100, Hindi ginti or national symbols of India, which include the Saka national calendar.