Another user of the single fist method. And I still use it on a regular basis!
Thirty days hath November, April, June and the speed offender 
Me too, FWIW.
Never heard of the knuckle method. I learned the rhyme. I think it’s interesting how some people have trouble with the months rhyming, and some don’t. I never had an issue with it.
Thirty days hath September
April, June, and November
All the rest have thirty-one
Save February, which stands in line
'Till leap year makes it twenty-nine
Was the version I was taught.
I still use it, very regularly. Anytime I need to remember offhand how many days a month has, especially when playing the, ‘how many days left until the rent check is due minus how many days it takes a deposit in my bank to clear equals how many days I have to put money in my account’ game.
Which is pretty much every month.
Thirty days hath September.
All the rest I can’t remember!
I learned the rhyme as well, but as a kid I never really got a clear answer on what the last part was supposed to be (I notice Doper accounts are inconsistent as well). Thus, since the age of five, whenever I need to remember this information, I mentally recite the following:
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest have thirty-one
Except February and all that shit.
Since I can remember the specifics of February unprompted, it works quite well. 
I was taught the rhyme and could never remember the last bit about February (which is okay since the hard part to remember is which months have thirty days). My Norskie husband was taught the knuckle counting thing and taught it to me.
Never learned any of the above. Point in fact, I still screw up the order of the months themselves occasionally.
I was taught the rhyme. I think I was already in college before encountering the knuckle thing.
Hi Robot Arm. You’ve touched on a very interesting point. As you correctly point out, the rhyme and scansion would be identical even if the first line ended in ‘December’. The strange thing is that even though you are absolutely correct, the mnemonic still has some value.
Rhyme and rhythm help people to remember things, because they involve different areas of the mind and memory and provide additional ‘memory hooks’. The mnemonic device wraps some helpful information in a neat package that has the added ‘appeal’ of rhyme and rhythm. This assists the act of remembering, and increases the chances of successful recall.
You are right to point out that this particular mnemonic device has some ‘arbitrary’ features, but nonetheless children are more likely to remember the pattern made by the syllables of the entire line, thanks to the additional cues of rhyme and rhymthm.
This is the first I’ve heard of the knuckles method.
I read the thread title and had a horrible flashback to when my father taught me to tell the time by punching me in the face at certain intervals.
But I’ve never heard of your knuckles method.
I guess it depends on what “being taught” means. I piked it up from watching someone else.
But I don’t recall any of my grade school teachers showing me this trick.
Honestly, I’ve never heard of this before, so I guess the answer is “yes”. I just used brute-force memorization.
Thirty Days, hath September,
April, June, and November,
All the rest have Thirty-One
Except for February alone,
Which hath Twenty-Eight days clear,
And Twenty-Nine in each Leap Year.
I learned that back before I remember learning to learn things. Back before I even realized that the idea of a clear February was just some jokester’s evil pun.
So what the hell is the Knuckle Method? This is going to haunt me …
I learned it by the poem, although I’ve known both methods since I was little.
However, the poem I learned is;
Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November.
All the rest of thirty one,
Except February,
which has 28 alone.
But leap year once in four,
February then has one day more!
In case of any confusion on how often leap years happen. Lots of pertinent information in there.
I learned the knuckle-method from someone in my family (I think my mother taught it to me).
I don’t recall ever learning it, or the rhyme, in school.
It’s amazing how many variations of the rhyme there are!
Thirty days has September, April, June and November
Except on leap year
That’s the time
When February’s days are 29
Never heard of the knuckle method.
Never heard of the knuckle method until this thread. What do you do with the extra valley and knuckle?
I learned the rhyme as well.
One-hand method for right-handers:
Make a fist with with your left hand, knuckles up. Each knuckle represents months with thirty-one days and each depression between them represents months with thirty days or less (Feb.). Place the index finger of your right hand on top of your left hand’s index finger knuckle. That is January, which has thirty-one days. The depression next to it as you move toward your little finger is Feb; the next knuckle is March, the next depression is April, and so on. When you get to your little finger knuckle (July), jump back to your index finger knuckle for August and proceed on through Dec.
ETA: The thumb knuckle is not used.