Prepared For Life

An easy and fun way for parents and teachers to teach children how to tell time.

As adults telling time is a part of our daily lives. It comes naturally. Most of us look at our watches or clocks and understand the concept of time, what time it is, how much time we have left for certain activities in our day, and when it’s time to relax. Learning to tell time is a whole other ball game. Do you remember how you learned to tell time and the first time you actually understood the concept? For me it did not come naturally and was not a fun experience. I don’t blame my parents for the boredom and countless repetition and memorization of learning to tell time on our kitchen analog clock. I remember the urgency in my father’s approach to teaching me to tell time and know the hours, minutes, and seconds. It was as if someone had told him I better know this or else. My fathers’ only tool was that analog kitchen clock. I’ll never forget the rectangular face and pea green color and the feeling of dread every time he took it off the wall. If only my parents had the tools we have today.
When I think about how children learn and what makes them tick (no pun intended) I analyze how am I going to get children to understand the concept of time and have it come naturally for them. Young children do not have the ability to have a concept of time, but they can start to practice counting and learning. Today telling time is easy. With digital clocks all anyone needs to know is the numbers and quantity to 60. However learning to tell time with just digital clocks robs the children of a whole world of mathematics, changes in time, months, days, hours and minutes, and seasons. By using the tools I am going to suggest, your children and/or students will want to go back again and again to them until it comes naturally. There have been many children that want to continue using these tools just because they are fun and it becomes a part of their daily life. I found all of these tools on a great educational toy website called www.BrainBuildingToys.com. They are very reasonably priced and it’s one stop shopping.
My first pick and the best beginner tool is a magnetic calendar. The magnetic calendar has many benefits that you and your children will love to discover. It comes with all the 12 months of the year, the year and 3 or 4 in the future, the numbers for the days of the month, the days of the week, and special holidays and worldly events. If we start out simply, you can teach the youngest child to count. They are seeing the actual numbers and most important, the quantity of the numbers. For instance, the third day of the month is in the third box of the calendar. The child will see the number three and that it is the third box by counting them. The children will discover there are seven days in a week and four weeks in a month. I play a game with my students (3 to 6 year olds) that they love. After we are aware of the day of the week I will than ask a series of questions. What day was it YESTERDAY? What day will it be TOMORROW? What day was it 2 days ago? What day will it be 3 days from today? By asking such questions, children will become more aware of the concept of time, understand that yesterday was the past, tomorrow is the future, and they will also begin to recognize the labels and names for the days of the week and the number. We also sing a song that goes to the tune of “Oh my darling Clementine.” It goes like this:

There are 7 days, there are 7 days, there are 7 days in a week; Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Satur- day!

With older children addition, subtraction, and multiplication could become possible activities. For example, you can pose a question such as “Today is Monday how many more days until it is Friday?” or “There are 7 days in a week; 3 weeks have gone by this month, how many days is that?
Day light savings time will come into the picture at some point, depending on your location in the world. We always say, “In the fall we fall back and in the spring we spring ahead.
By using this magnetic calendar children can manipulate the days of the week and months of the year. It is more hands-on than a traditional calendar and doesn’t waste paper. Trust me I have spent many hours cutting out days of the month and special days. This magnetic calendar is time and energy efficient, I love it.
The second time telling tool I use with my students is a wooden shape sorting clock. This wooden clock is very appealing to the children. It has many developmental purposes and you can’t lose by having this. First the numbers 1-12 are all on a different solid shape that come off the clock like a puzzle. It is self-correcting. The child using it on their own will always put the shape/number in the correct spot. The minute and hour hands are labeled and moveable. In the center of the clock there are the numbers for the minutes. And then quarter past, half past, quarter till, and one hour. I usually start teaching time to a student that has had plenty of practice and some mastery with the number 1-60. It helps to have that prerequisite. However the younger children are so intrigued by the clock that I show them the numbers/shapes. We will count the numbers and they can put the solid shapes in the proper places successfully (which makes the clock even more engaging). Success is a true winner for wanting to learn more!
When teaching the more number experienced child, I usually start out letting them move the hands around and experimenting with it for a few minutes. Then I tell them we’re going to work on learning the hours. I tell them the minute hand is always on the 12 when we reach the o’clock term. And the hour hand could be on any given number. So I have the child manually put the minute hand on the 12 and tell them to put the hour hand on any number. Then I wait a few seconds to see if they pick up the concept. Some children will pick and number, say 2 and say, “oh, 2 o’clock”. Others will need a little more encouragement and guidance; so I’ll say,”Oh 2 o’clock”. Then I engage them in a bit of conversation about what they might be doing at 2 o’clock. This may lead to am and pm or just what they think they may be doing at the given hour. I say this because some children will begin to understand and pick up on the concept, maybe just by being aware of conversations around them. I had one student who told me that at 3 in the morning she was asleep but at 3 in the afternoon she would be going home from school. It all depends on the child, so just follow their lead and it will come naturally for them. After the child a mastered the hour they are ready to learn the half hour. The same lesson as the hour except the minute hand is on the 6. At this point I also try out to see if they are ready for the mintues. This lesson is also an indirect lesson for the 5 times tables. I usally make it a little sing- songy tune because we all know jiggles can really stick in the brain. Again the process depends on the child, so no need to rush. I feel the minutes is an on going lesson. Some children may pick it up and others will need more encouragement and guidance. Once the half hour is mastered than move on to quarter past and quarter till. At this point the clock and time concept should start to click for most children. And that brings us to the follow-up games and practice.

These two games can be played at any time during the learning process. They are excellent for more abstract thinking and practice. The first game is german made and it is called ‘School! Ready! Set! Go!’ It has several varients to the game all with different degrees of difficulty. Basically the game will help with memory and handling the clock. It goes through a school day with all it’s different changes. It a beautiful game, well made, and includes a variation for cooperation. I have found that the children I played with loved seeing what comes next in their day and what to expect in their day. As well as manipulating the clock and the success of knowing the correct time. It has an age requirement of 5 to 12 years old.
The last but not least tool/game is ‘My First Clock’. This is a very simplified game and the age requirement is 4 to 9. It involves learning the digital time and analog times on watches with all the numbers on a watch, the numbers 12, 3, 6, & 9, just 12 with markers for the other numbers, and roman numerals. It introduces children step by step to full hours, half hours, and mintues with three different game variations. This is a great game for children to learn with an adult and then play by themselves.

Learning to tell time does not need to be a dreadful lesson for child and adult. I have found that with these tools not only did the children have fun but so did I. We all looked forward to the calendar, the wooden clock, and the games. Learning should be a time of success and total child involvement. Listen to children and they will tell you when they are ready. With a keen sense and observation any adult can see the signs and know when the time is right.