30 days hath September
April, June and November
All the rest have 31
except February, which has 28 days clear
and 29 each Leap Year.
I still don’t know the knuckle method.
Ditto. That’s really all you need, as February is an obvious exception, and every month not in that list has 31.
I never heard of your method. I never learned it either as I could use a calendar.
I learned about the knuckle method in my late teens/early twenties but it was by using only one fist. You start with the index finger knuckle and work outwards to the little finger knuckle which is July, then jump back to the index finger knuckle for August (so you have the two long summer months back to back) and then proceed toward the little finger again through December.
Never heard of the knuckle method till high school. I still use the rhyme, but these days I know most of them.
I was not taught either. I read of the rhyme in high school, and a couple of years ago a friend showed me the knuckle method. I don’t use any of them, anyways. By now, I more or less have an idea what length it is… or go get a calendar.
I was never taught either method. It doesn’t seem terribly hard to just learn. All you have to remember is the two cases when a long month follows another long month. And that February is weird.
I learned the knuckle thing from Jimmy Dodd on the Mickey Mouse Club.
Never heard of the knuckle method until just now.
These days I don’t really need the rhyme, as I can remember what months have how many days. I are smrt!
Didn’t learn it until I was an adult. Great mnemonic though.
Never heard of it.
I just seemed to remember it myself.
I learned it as an adult. I could never remember that “30 days has…” poem because it falls apart at the end.
Learned it as an adult.
I learned some of the months from the rhyme, but a different rhyme from the one quoted above:
This is the rhyme I learned from my mother:
“30 days hath September, April, June and No wonder.
All the rest have strawberry jam
Save my grandmother and she rides a bicycle.”
I never learned the knuckle method, although I have seen people use it. After I grew up, I learned to use the above rhyme to know the days of the month. If you remember that “No wonder” would mean November, you can figure out the rest of the months, “strawberry jam” being “31” and “grandmother” being February.
In defense of my mother’s parenting skills, she had a great sense of humor.
knuckles here. I still use it.
I don’t think that’s true for Britain.
I came across it at about the same time. The rhyme I came across when I was 9 or so but I didn’t think it was a good memory device. I’d known the lengths of months for a long time before then, though - as others have said, it’s just not that difficult, and if you do get it wrong then well, you find out quickly enough.
I had never heard of the knuckles method until I opened this thread. I grew up with the rhyme, although the one I learned is a little different:
Thirty days hath September, April, June and November
After February’s done
All the rest have thirty-one.
This one doesn’t fall apart at the end like the traditional one and was learned set to music.
I’d never heard of the knuckle bit until this thread. And while I’d heard the rhyme, I never memorized it. I’ve always used the ‘look at the calender’ method.
Nope, not until just now. I opened the thread to see what in the world you were on about. It’s very interesting, though. Thanks for the enlightenment. 
This is the first I’ve heard of the knuckle method. I’d heard the rhyme but never bothered to memorize it.