Sometimes it is very necessary to teach what we assume to be the obvious. Consider the facts of creation. Why does it matter that a child knows the order of the days of creation? As long as he accepts that it happened, isn’t that enough? Science confirms that the order of creation designed by God is essential to the survival of vegetation and man at the very least. If man and animals had been created before the sun and water, our survival would have been nil unless God intervened. The order of creation helps the skeptic to verify God’s creation as scientifically sound. The Bible was written centuries before the scientific facts of man’s survival needs, such as adequate water, light, and of course food, were actually studied. The ancient writers recorded the order God gave them, not their own perception of the order. The sound science was there long before the proofs of man. God knew the scientific knowledge He would give man would confirm His creation as legitimate. Don’t overlook this important element of creation.
When I was about six (during the last ice age), I learned the order of the days of creation by using an acronym, the first letters of a group of words used to form a new word or memory aid (Scuba is an acronym for self-contained underwater breathing apparatus). My creation acronym is LOVSAM: L is for the light created on the first day; O is for the oceans separated and formed on the second day; V is for vegetation on day three; S is for stars and the heavenly bodies created on the fourth day; A is for animals and M is for man. Of course, this simple acronym lumps a lot of knowledge into a few words, but I always remember the order! Whether you use a linear chart, or a globe onto which the student can paste the items and number them, it is important to later science foundations that creation be in its proper order.
Good books to read on this subject include The Genesis Record and Scientific Creationism, both by Henry Morris. A newer and very thorough book by Walt Brown (the Ph.D. from MIT brain of other science fame) is In the Beginning.